June 12, 2019
WASHINGTON, DC—For the first time ever, a health information exchange organization has earned the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) eMeasure Certification. Earlier this year, Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NEHII) submitted its electronic clinical quality measure(eCQM) software to NCQA for the most rigorous tests available. NCQA is proud to announce NEHII has earned NCQA’s eMeasure Certification by proving its software can produce accurate and reliable results.
NEHII is the first Health Information Exchange to face NCQA’s eMeasure testing laboratory, recently approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). As an ONC-Authorized Testing Lab (ONC-ATL), NCQA can test quality measures as part of the ONC Health IT Certification program. NCQA is the only approved alternative to this government-based electronic quality measure testing procedure.
“As the country continues to move from fee for service to fee for value, valid performance measurement is all the more important. NCQA’s rigorous certification program is designed to ensure that the algorithms to calculate quality performance rates are valid,” said Rick Moore, Chief Information Officer, NCQA. “We applaud the Nebraska Health Information Initiative as the first HIE organization to hold itself to the highest standards of eMeasure testing the industry has to offer.”
With NCQA eMeasure certification, health IT and data vendors can use the NCQA generated test decks for two certifications; ONC HIT Certification for use in reporting electronic clinical quality measures to CMS for the Quality Payment Program; as well as NCQA eMeasure certification for use in NCQA’s recognition for Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and as a standard supplemental dataset in support of Health Effectiveness Data Information Set (HEDIS) reporting.
“NEHII is thrilled to take this important step for health information exchanges across the country”, Jaime Bland, Chief Executive Officer, Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NEHII). “Our analytics partners, KPI Ninja, were key in the success of this project and allowed both NEHII and KPI Ninja to prove the concept that HIEs are best positioned to be the solution to the challenge of interoperability and bringing disparate data sources together to improve quality of care and improve efficiencies. Providers and payers should be looking to HIEs to be a key enabler of population and value based initiatives across the country.”
Health plans using NCQA-Certified vendors save time by eliminating the primary source verification portion of the HEDIS Compliance Audit.
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s Web site (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.
HEDIS® is a registered trademark of NCQA.
NCQA Measure CertificationSM is a service mark of NCQA. All rights reserved.
About NEHII
NEHII, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a public/private governance model that includes health care providers, payers, and the State of Nebraska. NEHII is a statewide Health Information Exchange designed to share clinical and administrative data among providers in Nebraska and neighboring states. NEHII’s purpose is to achieve health care transformation through community betterment collaboration while protecting the security and privacy of medical information. www.nehii.org