Reform Update: NCQA Previews New Medical Home Standards

The National Committee for Quality Assurance, under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of its recognition programs, previewed new patient-centered medical home standards (PDF) intended to put more emphasis on team-based care, integrating behavioral health and sustaining practice transformation.

The NCQA has now recognized more than 7,000 practices in which about 36,000 clinicians practice as medical homes. But a recent Journal of the American Medicine Association study, conducted by RAND Corp. researchers between 2008 and 2011, found little quality improvement in 32 Southeast Pennsylvania practices that had NCQA recognition compared with 29 that were not recognized.

NCQA President Margaret O'Kane noted Monday during an online question-and-answer period that the JAMA study reflected a snapshot in time capturing the early days of the medical home movement with practices using the 2008 standards, which were revised in 2011 and now again in 2014.

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Source: Modern Healthcare