NATIONAL CHLAMYDIA SCREENING RATES INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY BETWEEN 2001 AND 2007, ACCORDING TO NCQA/CDC STUDY REPORTED IN JAMA

Study Relies on NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®)

In an online article in today;s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) researchers, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported that the national screening rate for chlamydia among sexually active females aged 16-25 increased from 25.3% in 2000 to 41.6% in 2007.  According to the JAMA article, routine chlamydia screening has been recommended for sexual active young women since 1989. NCQA includes chlamydia screening among its HEDIS quality measures, reported by approximately 90% of U.S. health plans annually.

"Chlamydia screening is an essential component of the preventive services that consumers expect health plans to provide and that result in better health and prevention of serious disease," said NCQA Executive Vice President L. Gregory Pawlson, M.D.  "HEDIS has become an important tool for enabling health plans to hold themselves accountable to purchasers and the public."

“We value HEDIS data to track Chlamydia screening and other clinical preventive services in health plans. Screening sexually active young women should be a routine part of medical care, yet screening rates remain low. We need to do better," said Robert J. Gould, PhD, President of the Partnership for Prevention which leads the National Chlamydia Coalition.  "The National Chlamydia Coalition offers up-to-date information for providers and health plans to help make screening a routine part of care."  Additional resources are available at www.prevent.org/NCC.

The JAMA article is available at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/302/6/620

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. More than 7 in 10 Americans enrolled in health plans are in an NCQA-Accredited plan. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.

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