EIGHT SOFTWARE VENDORS RECEIVE NCQA’S SOFTWARE CERTIFICATIONSM
Health plans using certified vendors’ software exempt from source code review during NCQA’s HEDIS® Compliance AuditSM
WASHINGTON— The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today announced the certification of eight leading software vendors for their Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®)-related software. Such software collects HEDIS-related data from health plan databases and calculates HEDIS results across some 57 measures of care and service, including the eligible population for the survey measures.
Using NCQA-Certified software for HEDIS data collection, health plans save time and resources by forgoing the manual source code review portion of the HEDIS Compliance Audit. The Compliance Audit is a vital component of NCQA Accreditation and other oversight programs.
NCQA-Certified software undergoes a rigorous validation. Vendors process unique sets of test data using their HEDIS software product. The output is then compared to the expected results to determine whether the software computes HEDIS rates correctly. NCQA HEDIS Software CertificationSM is awarded when a minimum of 90 percent of the measures are confirmed. Certification is valid for one year.
Eight vendors have received NCQA HEDIS Software Certification:
- Catalyst Technologies, Inc.
- DST Health Solutions
- Integration Management, Inc.
- McKesson Health Solutions, LLC
- MedAssurant, Inc.
- Q Mark, Inc.
- TIERMED SYSTEMS, LLC
- ViPS, Inc.
Four more vendors are currently seeking certification. They include:
- Austin Provider Solutions, Inc.
- ikaSystems
- Innoapp, LLC
- ManagedCare.com
“Software vendors who achieve NCQA Certification demonstrate they can reliably collect and calculate the most accurate results possible,” said Mary Braman, Director, Licensure and Certification. “Contracting with a NCQA-Certified software vendor streamlines the audit process, and allows plans to spend more time improving the quality of care for their members.”
In addition to full certification, NCQA offers Limited Software Certification to vendors whose software tests a subset of the HEDIS measurement set or the clinical measurement set of Integrated Healthcare Association’s California Pay for Performance (P4P), an innovative effort employing standardized measures to evaluate physician performance and reward those achieving at a high level. The Limited Software Certification process is still in progress.
Vendors currently seeking Limited Certified SoftwareSM status include:
- Austin Provider Solutions, Inc.
- Catalyst Technologies, Inc.
- Innoapp, LLC
- ManagedCare.com
- MedAssurant, Inc.
- ODIS, LLC
- Q Mark, Inc.
- TIERMED SYSTEMS, LLC
NCQA maintains an updated list of vendors that receive full or limited certification on its Web site at www.ncqa.org/HEDIS/softcert.aspx. For more information about either Software Certification program, contact Anne Smith, Manager, Licensure & Certification, at (303) 651-6995 or smith@ncqa.org.
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. 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 through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. For more information, visit www.ncqa.org.
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HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
NCQA HEDIS® Compliance AuditSM, NCQA HEDIS® Software CertificationSM, Certified HEDIS® SoftwareSM and Limited Certified SoftwareSM are service marks of NCQA. All rights reserved.