TWELVE SOFTWARE VENDORS RECEIVE NCQA’S SOFTWARE CERTIFICATION

Health plans using certified vendors’ software exempt from source code review during HEDIS 2010 Compliance Audit™

WASHINGTON—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced today the certification of twelve software vendors for their Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®)-related software. NCQA Software Certification demonstrates to prospective health plan customers the product’s integrity and its ability to produce accurate and reliable results. Health plans using NCQA-Certified Software save time and resources by forgoing the manual source code review portion of the HEDIS Compliance Audit and P4P Audit Review.

“Plans that use NCQA-Certified software can spend more time improving quality in ways that matter to their members and less time getting ready for an audit,” said Mary Braman, NCQA’s Director of Licensure & Certification. “We commend the vendors who have earned certification for their commitment to quality.”

NCQA validates software by generating unique sets of test data that vendors process using their software. The output is compared to the expected results to determine if the software computes results according to the specifications.

Software Certification included testing on the HEDIS performance measure Immunizations for Adolescents, which is new for 2010.

This year, HEDIS Software Certification testing concluded March 1, 2010. Vendors who did not complete certification by this date received a certification report indicating only the measures that were certified.

In addition, there are vendors participating in Partial Software Certification. These vendors test a subset of HEDIS measures or the P4P measurement set. This year, P4P Software Certification testing concludes on April 1, 2010.

For more information on Software Certification and a complete list of each vendor’s status, visit www.ncqa.org/HEDIS/softcert.aspx or contact Anne Smith, Program Director, Software Certification at smith@ncqa.org.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2010, 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 is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers and researchers.

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