A Test for Transmitting Data from Electronic Health Records

May 12, 2015 · NCQA

When electronic health records are used in the health care system, providers can improve the quality and efficiency of the care they provide to patients. But, only if the records are accurate.

To ensure accurate reporting of data, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has launched an electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) pilot testing program. Three leading health care IT companies have already begun participating in the program. The program’s goal is to validate the capabilities of EHR vendors to report data.

NCQA believes this program can help health plans achieve a higher degree of reliability for the eCQM data they use in data sets that evaluate health care quality, Healthcare Effectiveness Data Information Set (HEDIS) and Medicare Stars.

Health plans, IT companies, providers and registries that use certified software code will see a reduction in HEDIS audit requirements. This allows a streamlined audit process that will enable providers to focus more on the patient.

This program serves as the starting point for NCQA’s full eMeasure Certification program, which is modeled after NCQA’s Measure Certification. The Measure Certification program used to measure purely administrative data. This eMeasure Certification will expand the use of EHR data for the most popular forms of quality reporting, HEDIS and Medicare Stars.