About NCQA
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a non-profit standards body with a mission "to improve the quality of health care delivered to people everywhere." NCQA's rigorous evaluation process assesses the quality of the key processes that make up an organization. NCQA began accrediting managed care organizations (MCOs) in 1991, in response to the need for standardized, objective information about the quality of these organizations. NCQA's accreditation program has been embraced by purchasers, consumers and health plans as an objective measure of the quality of these organizations.
Since the inception of the MCO accreditation program,
NCQA has expanded its scope to include accreditation of other organizations
and services such as:
New Health Plans (NHPs)
Managed behavioral health care organizations (MBHOs)
Credentialing verification organizations (CVOs)
Preferred Physicians Organizations (PPOs)
Physicians Organizations (POs)
Disease Management Programs
More information about NCQA's programs can be found at www.ncqa.org
RESOURCES
Our Services
Syntro offers a menu of services and tools, which are adapted to fit
your needs. After understanding your objectives and internal resources,
we assess your organization's needs and help you determine areas currently
in compliance as well as gaps with each standard requirement.
The Assessment
Your assessment includes reviewing key plan documents, evaluating core
processes, auditing files and interviewing staff responsible for managing
and implementing standards. We complete the initial assessment using
the version of NCQA's surveyor guidelines, data collection tools and
surveyor file review materials that you will be accredited under. (For
our white paper on 2001 standards and distinctions,
click here)
If desired, you may request an assessment against multiple sets of standards,
for example, Medicaid and Medicare regulations, NCQA and URAC.
Scoring
When applicable, we score your organization's compliance with the standards.
The scoring can include accreditation standards only, or HEDIS and accreditation
standards. Scoring the accreditation standards helps to focus priorities
toward standards with the greatest number of points and to remove guessing
and bias.
Establish Priorities
The assessment results help you establish priorities and determine areas
needing the highest degree of focus. You receive from us an action plan
of the gaps, and action steps necessary to fully implement all standards.
The action plan is written in a project-plan format that you can use
for management. We help you work through the variables necessary in
setting the priorities that are right for your organization.
Develop a Plan
Your action plan serves as the basis for developing a full plan for
implementation of the standards and/or survey preparation. The plan
is a living document that you update and modify.
Tools and Templates
You may desire other resources that make implementation and survey preparation
easy and minimize struggle and stress. Our tools library
(click here
to review) provides tools to help guide implementation as well as sample
program documents, and policy and procedure templates. We have done
the research, analysis, and organized all information into easy-to-use
guidelines and templates, saving you many hours of time and money. These
tools are based on years of experience in the field and as surveyors.
Other Services
We tailor our services to match the needs and desires of the organization.
Services can range from an initial evaluation and report, to quarterly
site visits with intermittent conference calls and off-site document
review, to onsite project management. (click here to access information
on Syntro consulting services).
