Why Being NCQA Population Health Management Prevalidated Matters for ThoroughCare Users

February 13th, 2024 | 3 min. read

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a private, nonprofit organization that helps health plans and provider organizations improve care quality and measurement.

NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of healthcare organizations, and recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. It is known for its commitment to rigorous standards and performance measures, such as HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data Information Set) measures.

NCQA accreditation demonstrates an organization’s ability to deliver high-quality services and establish trust with patients and regulatory bodies. For health plans or providers seeking NCQA accreditation, using prevalidated digital tools can help meet specific requirements.

Software platforms can receive NCQA prevalidation to demonstrate their effectiveness and alignment to industry standards. This recognition shows health plans and providers that a particular health IT solution is capable of meeting specific goals.

What NCQA status does ThoroughCare hold?

ThoroughCare is NCQA Prevalidated for Population Health Management in Health Plan Accreditation. Population health management refers to strategies used by healthcare organizations to improve outcomes for a specific group or community.

In the context of NCQA, this prevalidation supports four main NCQA Accreditation Programs:

Health Plan (Standards Years 2023/2024)
Managed Behavioral Healthcare Organization (Standards Years 2023/2024)
Case Management (Standards Year 2020)
Population Health (Standards Year 2019)

ThoroughCare underwent a review process for each program, where the functionality of our platform was evaluated for effectiveness. This review covered reporting functions, report examples, screenshots, live demonstrations, and more.

Organizations seeking NCQA accreditation can use ThoroughCare’s prevalidation status to get automatic credit in some areas of their application. This creates a big incentive for organizations to use tools aligned with national standards to ensure care quality.

What was assessed to determine ThoroughCare’s prevalidation?

NCQA examined ThoroughCare’s core functionality. This included an extensive review of features and reporting relevant to the following areas of population health management:

Data Collection and Analysis: Assessed the quality and accuracy of the data collected by ThoroughCare
Care Management: Evaluated ThoroughCare’s tools to identify at-risk patients, create personalized care plans, and coordinate healthcare services to improve outcomes.
Patient Engagement: Examined the tools ThoroughCare provides to engage and involve patients in their own healthcare, such as through education, communication, and support programs.
Health IT Infrastructure: Reviewed data security and interoperability standards within the platform.
Performance Reporting: Analyzed how ThoroughCare enables users to track and report performance in terms of health outcomes, quality of care, and patient satisfaction.
Continuous Improvement: Evaluated whether ThoroughCare has processes in place to continuously assess its population health management tools and implement changes to enhance effectiveness.

Being NCQA Population Health Management Prevalidated offers assurance to ThoroughCare users that the platform has been reviewed by a reputable third-party.

How do ThoroughCare users benefit?

ThoroughCare users benefit from technology that is backed by a reputable accreditation body, giving them a competitive edge in their respective markets.

NCQA Population Health Management Prevalidated status:

Ensures all data collected by ThoroughCare is analyzed to industry standards
Further validates that ThoroughCare’s patient engagement tools and clinical workflows are evidence-based and follow best practices
Demonstrates that the platform’s reporting capabilities are aligned with national quality measures
Supports population health initiatives, especially for organizations who wish to become NCQA accredited themselves

For organizations pursuing NCQA Accreditation, using ThoroughCare can provide automatic credit in some areas of your application.

Access to opportunities

ThoroughCare users can leverage this accreditation to demonstrate their commitment to providing high-quality, evidence-based healthcare services, potentially attracting more patients and collaborators.

Risk mitigation

ThoroughCare users benefit from reduced risk, knowing that they are working with a population health management solution that has undergone a full evaluation process.

Quality improvement and alignment

Users benefit from ThoroughCare's commitment to continuous improvement, as it ensures that the population health management tools and services they are using are up-to-date and aligned with the latest industry standards.