National Committee For Quality Assurance Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is National Committee For Quality Assurance?
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is an independent, non-profit organization that promotes healthcare quality and accountability by providing resources, information, and certifications to providers across the United States. NCQA certifies health plans, accredits medical practices, recognizes patient-centered medical homes, and approves health plan performance measures. Additionally, NCQA provides ratings of healthcare providers on a scale that measures patient satisfaction as well as clinical outcomes.NCQA was founded in 1990 by a consortium of private sector organizations dedicated to improving the nation’s health care system through quality assessment and improvement efforts. This coalition included employer groups such as The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), hospitals such as Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, professional organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA), consumers’ groups such as Consumers Union and United Healthcare Services Inc., representatives from public agencies such as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) now known as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and many others. Since its founding NCQA has developed a variety of programs that strive to improve the healthcare system in America through certification processes for health plans throughout the country; accreditation processes for medical practices; recognition programs for those demonstrating excellence in patient experience; approval programs for performance measure used by health plans; research into various topics pertaining to healthcare quality improvement; providing training sessions on various topics within healthcare quality improvement; providing technical assistance services to help organizations improve their own systems or gain recognition from NCQA itself ;and working with government agencies on policy issues related to healthcare quality improvement. All these efforts allow NCQA to be a leader in developing standards of excellence among providers nationwide which can then be shared with other stakeholders across all levels of care delivery so they may benefit from their expertise. NCQA focuses its attention primarily on improving access to affordable care while maintaining high levels of safety, effectiveness and customer service thus leading the way towards better patient outcomes overall at national level. Its commitment towards this goal is evident through its numerous collaborations with state governments, federal departments/agencies such as CMS or Centers for Disease Control (CDC), private insurers/employers who utilize its services etc.