Virtual Care Accreditation

Build Toward a Higher Level of Virtual Care

Rising health care costs, limited access to care, and the COVID-19 pandemic jump-started the rapidly growing field of virtual care. Virtual-first care delivery options have entered the market, and more traditional venues of care—including hospital and office settings—now add virtual care to their services. Virtual care can meet the needs of both individuals served and clinicians, enhance existing processes and help prioritize and fill quality and equity gaps.

Although there are differences in how virtual care is delivered, care must meet the same quality and coordination expected in brick-and-mortar settings. In the virtual care landscape, traditional organizations operating in hybrid capabilities, and virtual-first organizations, are seeking guidance to improve processes and enhance the care experience of their covered populations. Organizations that partner with virtual care providers must be able to identify high-quality care. But many health care entities face significant hurdles to building virtual care delivery systems, and lack a roadmap for delivering quality care virtually.

NCQA’s Virtual Care Accreditation includes standards built on structural components of virtual care delivery. These standards can position organizations to identify gaps in their virtual care programs, identify opportunities to improve, implement interventions and track outcomes.

Entities that earn this Accreditation are working to meet or exceed their goals of improving individuals’ health outcomes and attracting partner organizations that seek value-based contracting agreements for virtual care. The program was developed to help organizations demonstrate that they can be trusted care delivery partners.

Designed with Purpose

This program is for organizations that offer virtual primary care and virtual urgent care, and for those that oversee virtual care networks.

• Flexibility. Organizations take the path to Accreditation that suits their strengths, schedule and goals.
• Personalized service. Organizations are assigned an NCQA representative who helps them navigate the Accreditation process and is a consistent point of contact.
• User-friendly approach. Requirements are meaningful and reporting is simple, with reduced paperwork.
• Continuous improvement. Annual reporting help organizations strengthen over time By reviewing progress more often, we keep performance improvement at the top of the organization’s priorities list.
• Alignment with changes in health care. The program aligns with current public and private initiatives, and can adapt to future changes.

Two Accreditation Options

NCQA understands the needs of both hybrid and virtual-first entities, and the nuances of delivering care virtually. Organizations can pursue Virtual Care Delivery Accreditation or Virtual Care Delivery Oversight Accreditation—or both, simultaneously, depending on their business operations.