Patient-Centered Specialty Practice (PCSP) Recognition
The PCSP Recognition program helps facilitate team-based care by improving collaboration with primary care and recognizing specialists who streamline and improve health care delivery.
What is NCQA PCSP Recognition?
The PCSP Recognition program builds on the success of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition program by recognizing specialty practices that excel in delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. It focuses on proactive coordination and sharing information. Everyone in the practice works as a team to coordinate care with primary care, other referring clinicians, community resources and secondary services.
Practices are encouraged to organize care around patients and coordinate and track care over time. Specialty practices are required to organize care across all practices and patient visits—centering care on the patient, instead of on the care setting.
New Guidance: Modifications to Scoring for NCQA Recognition Program Evaluations
We know that many organizations are determining how recent executive orders regarding gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion apply to their ongoing work, and are wondering how best to navigate their obligations to federal and state partners and to their members and patients.
As a federal contractor, NCQA is evaluating how the executive orders impact NCQA and our programs. We also know that many of our customers and quality partners are considering the impact of the executive orders. Our goal with this guidance is to clarify NCQA’s scoring during this rapidly evolving health policy environment. We are therefore implementing scoring modifications to certain criteria for evaluations starting on or after February 12, 2025, for the programs listed below.
- Patient-Centered Medical Home.
- Patient-Centered Specialty Practice.
- Virtual Primary and Urgent Care Accreditation.
Modifications to how NCQA scores evaluations can be viewed here.
This guidance will remain in effect until April 30, 2025, or until NCQA issues further guidance.
NCQA remains committed to driving health care quality improvement and giving patients and members access to high-quality, appropriate care that meets their unique needs.
Please submit questions via My NCQA.
Thank you for your continued partnership as we work together to improve health care quality for all.
Overview
Why PCSP?
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Integrated care produces better outcomes.
Communication between primary care physicians and specialists can be inadequate and inconsistent.
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Improve quality of care.
Specialty practices play a key role in achieving the “triple aim” of better quality, better patient experience and reduced cost for our health care system.
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Reduce cost of care.
Expensive hospitalizations, ER visits and complications are prevented, especially for patients with complex chronic conditions.
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Improve patient experience.
Patients receive the comprehensive coordinated care that they want, increasing patient satisfaction scores.
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Improve staff satisfaction.
PCSPs/PCMHs have systems and structures that help staff work more efficiently.
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Better management of chronic conditions.
Research shows that these conditions are managed better in a medical home.
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