Our Top Stories of 2016

January 6, 2017 · Amy Maciejowski

Hello 2017!

Before we begin the new year, we want to reflect a little on 2016. Throughout the year, we updated our blog with all the recent news and hot topics in health care. From diabetes to behavioral health- we covered it all. So, in looking back, we wanted to find out what mattered most to our readers this year. Do you remember all that happened last year? Here are the most-read blog posts in 2016:

1. Core Measures: We Have Quality Consensus. In health care, most agree measuring the quality of care is vital to improve care. As a leading measure developer, we joined a conversation about what should and should not be measured- and what constitutes good We believe there should be an agreed upon set of measures. (Read the details here)
2. CPC+ Announces Regions: View NCQA Directory as a Tool. More resources, more reasons to be a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). That was the name of the game in 2016. One of the many exciting announcements for primary care practices in 2016: CPC+. On August 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) program. CPC+ allows practices to gain funding to sustain their primary care practice transformation. At the same time of this announcement, NCQA released our updated annual directory that links clinicians to local resources (financial and other) that support NCQA clinical Recognition programs. (Read about the programs benefits here)
3. Recognition Redesign Google Hangout: We Tried It. We Liked It. NCQA spent 2016 examining our customer experience and evaluating our strengths and weaknesses. We started with our PCMH practices. As part of the Recognition Redesign, we revamped our PCMH recognition program and focused on the transformation process for practices: we changed everything from how practices apply to how they report. We expect this’ll be a top story in 2017. (Some have already tried the program- see their reactions here)
4. NCQA PCMH Practices Act Now: Significant Opportunity to Sustain. When CPC+ was announced, we reached out to NCQA Recognized practices. Why? Because they were well positioned to receive the support from the program. Their voices needed to be heard. Also, payers would listen to the outpouring of support. (Read what they had to say here)
5. MACRA: What’s Really in the Final Rule? Another big development this year: MACRA. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed with broad bipartisan support. It repealed the old way of paying physicians. The government released its final plan in November. Now doctors will be paid based upon the quality of care. (Read the full summary here)

So, bring on 2017! We look forward to a new year of new blogs, new debates and new discussions.  If you have anything you’d like to see featured on the blog, feel free to send suggestions to communications@ncqa.org. Are you working on something exciting? Email us and we can feature you in a blog, or you can write your own!