FAQ Directory

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about NCQA’s various programs. If you don’t see what you are looking for in one of the entries below, you can  ask a question through My NCQA.

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5.21.2018 TC 06 Are practices required to have daily, structured meetings with the entire care team? Is the clinician required to attend?

TC 06 requires practices to engage in regular communication to discuss care for patients scheduled each day, but this requirement can be satisfied by demonstration of either scheduled team meetings or scheduled electronic team communication, depending on the practice’s process for communication. Please note this communication is focused on patient care needs and is not to discuss practice transformation activities or staffing schedules.
All members of the practice care team, including clinicians, must participate in the communication; however, it is not required that the clinician be present if the team meets in-person, as long as there is a process in place to communicate the information from the meeting to the clinician.
 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
PCMH 2017

5.21.2018 TC 01 Does the clinician lead and staff managing the medical home transformation need to be an MD?

The clinician lead of the medical home must be a clinician as defined in the PCMH Policies and Procedures, which includes clinicians with an unrestricted license as an MD, DO, APRN or PA; however, NCQA is not prescriptive regarding the staff member who can be designated as the PCMH manager. Both can serve multiple sites and both roles can be assumed by the same person.
 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
PCMH 2017

5.21.2018 TC 04 May patient/family/caregiver members of a practice’s advisory council participate in meetings by telephone?

Yes. This method of participation must be included in the practice’s documented process for involving patients/families/caregivers on QI teams or practice advisory councils.
 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
PCMH 2017

5.15.2018 ECDS How do ECDS measures differ from the eMeasures in Meaningful Use (eCQMs)?

HEDIS ECDS measures are similar to eCQMs in structure, but although eCQMs are reported at the provider level, using data from an EHR, ECDS measures are reported at the health-plan level, using data from multiple sources to form a complete picture of the patient’s experience across the care continuum.

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

5.15.2018 ECDS What data standards does NCQA use to specify ECDS measures?

HEDIS ECDS measures use the Quality Data Model (QDM) and Clinical Quality Language (CQL) HL7 standards for quality measurement.

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

5.15.2018 MED standards and the new Medicaid module The previous MED standards are now 15 standards. Can you explain what happened?

In March, NCQA released an expanded Medicaid Module, a voluntary set of 15 standards for organizations with a Medicaid product line. This new module both incorporated the original MED standards (MED 1-MED 6) and added 10 new standards to align with provisions in the federal Medicaid Managed Care Final Rule released by CMS in April 2016.

The new MED module applies to only 2018 HPA; therefore, HPA survey tools for 2017 and earlier are unaffected and do not include the new Medicaid module.

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HP 2018

5.15.2018 ECDS Do you utilize FHIR to specify ECDS measures?

No. HEDIS ECDS measures use Quality Data Model (QDM) 5.3 as the reference model, although NCQA is researching the use of FHIR as a possible option.  

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

5.02.2018 Plan All-Cause Readmissions For the Count of Expected 30-Day Readmissions, we are using the calculation in Step 6 in HEDIS Volume 2 (pg. 384), but IDSS is calculating differently. Is this calculation correct?

The calculation for the Count of Expected 30-Day Readmissions is incorrect in Volume 2. IDSS currently calculates this field by using the formula "Count of Expected 30-Day Readmissions" = "Expected Readmission Rate" * "Count of Index Stays".

Please provide data for the Expected Readmission Rate and the Count of Index Stays and IDSS will use these values to generate the correct calculation. 
 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

3.21.2018 VBP4P/ACO- Clinical Measure Data File Layouts In the MY 2017 PO and HP clinical measure data file layouts, the Cervical Cancer Screening (CCS) measure ID on tab (4) Clin Meas ID Table includes the following edit check:

Denominator for CCS must be equal to or less than CCO denominator.

Because there are different exclusions for the CCS and CCO measures, however, the denominators across the two measures may not match and the edit check would fail. The CCO measure includes additional required exclusions, which means that the CCS denominator would either be equal to or greater than (not less than) the CCO denominator.

We agree that the edit check in the data file layout may not be true. For MY 2017, the edit check should state:
 

Denominator for CCS must be equal to or greater  than CCO denominator.  
 

Submissions that do not follow the corrected edit check will result in file rejection. VBP4P staff will make this correction and release a new version of the affected files on iha.org.

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
IHA P4P

3.15.2018 Transitions of Care If an organization reports the measure using the hybrid method and reports two indicators using administrative data from one provider, is the organization limited to only the medical record of that provider when searching for medical record documentation for the other indicators?

No. The Notification of Inpatient Admission and Receipt of Discharge Information indicators do not have to be documented in the same provider chart as the indicators that were reported administratively. Organizations may search the medical record of a different provider for those indicators that were not reported using administrative data.
 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

3.15.2018 Plan All-Cause Readmissions There is a discrepancy between Step 7 in the Risk Adjustment Weighting section (page 384) and in all the PCR reporting tables for how to calculate the Expected Readmissions Rate. Which one is correct?

Organizations must use the formula in Step 7 to calculate the Expected Readmissions Rate for PCR. The reference in the PCR reporting tables of the “(Expected Readmissions/Den)” is incorrect. The data element should only be “Expected Readmissions Rate.” This removal of the incorrect calculation instruction will be made in the Interactive Data Submission System (IDSS) and data dictionaries. 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018

3.15.2018 Care for Older Adults If the medical record contains a notation of a type of advance care plan (e.g., advance directive, actionable medical orders, living will, surrogate decision maker, full code, DNR) with documentation of “yes” or “no,” does this meet criteria?

If “yes” is documented for a type of advance care plan, this is considered evidence that a member has an advance care plan in place and meets criteria. If “no” is documented, this is considered evidence that the member does not have this type of advance care plan in place and does not meet criteria. For example, documentation of “DNR – No” indicates “the member does not have a DNR,” and does not meet criteria. In addition, documentation of “no” is not considered evidence of an advance care planning discussion (asking if a member has an advance care plan in place and documenting “no” is not considered a discussion). 

This applies to the following Programs and Years:
HEDIS 2018