Digital Quality Leaps Forward in Health Information Exchange Pilot
New York State Health Information Exchanges Raise Bar on Quality of Data Exchanged

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is pleased to announce the success of its new Data Aggregator Validation program (DAV) following a pilot project with the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and three of its health information exchange (HIE) members:

• • Hixny

  • HealtheConnections

  • HEALTHeLINK

All three earned one year of “Validated with Exception” status for their participation in the project. The “Validated with Exception” status signals to the industry that each exchange has the ability to share validated sources for standard supplemental data for use in measurement year 2020 HEDIS^® reporting.

NCQA chose consulting firm QMetrics as lead and evaluator for the pilot program. QMetrics worked closely with NCQA to develop the program protocols and with each HIE to ensure all Data Aggregator Validation program standards and protocols were met. That includes the primary source verification (PSV) process which reviews and evaluates all primary data sources used in aggregated data outputs.

“Our Data Aggregator Validation program was formed to address what payers were telling us, that HEDIS audits of clinical data from aggregator vendors could prove too burdensome,” said Rick Moore, NCQA Chief Information Officer. “Now, NCQA can validate an aggregator’s data sources prior to a HEDIS reporting year, and then health plans may use the approved sources as standard supplemental data without requiring more audits at the plan level.”

“DAV streamlines current approaches. It returns needed time and resources to both plans and providers,” added Wendy Talbot, NCQA Assistant Vice President of Measure Collection and Audits. “And we’re still moving closer to the ultimate goal—more data sources, better quality of data, and in a shorter time.”

Health plans now have access to an efficient process to collect high quality, comprehensive data for HEDIS measurement. Providers will see significantly curtailed burden. Care will not be disrupted as much to meet data collection requests from health plans. Both plans and providers can use the data created from this process to address other needs. For instance, closing care gaps and improving care delivery.

NCQA plans to conduct an Early Adopter phase prior to a broad roll out of the program in 2021.

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About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s Web site (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.

HEDIS® is a registered trademark of NCQA.