Improving Care Quality with New Data Aggregator Validation Program

The National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA) has launched a new Data Aggregator Validation program that will assist in ensuring the validity of clinical data used for quality reporting. The new program allows for more data and sources to be trusted, useful, and comparable, resulting in more effective healthcare practices and improve care quality.

NCQA’s Data Aggregator Validation program works to support data integrity by evaluating the ingestion, transformation, and output of clinical data. The use of the program will give health plans, government entities, and care organizations confidence in the validity of the clinical data they use for quality reporting, value-based contracting, closing gaps in care, and other initiatives.

“We invested heavily over the past two decades to digitize clinical data in this country, and we aren't yet getting full value from that investment because the data are inconsistent, incomplete and unvalidated," Chief Product Officer of NCQA Brad Ryan, MD, said in a press release.

"NCQA's Data Aggregator Validation program brings trust, comparability and utility to clinical data streams for use in HEDIS and beyond.”

The program will also save organizations time and money as part of the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) reporting process. Data from health information exchanges, care delivery organizations, and other data aggregators are increasingly providing supplemental data for HEDIS reporting.

Data streams validated by NCQA through the Data Aggregator Validation program can be used for standard supplemental data in HEDIS reporting and will eliminate the need for primary source verification during the HEDIS audit process, saving time and money for providers and health plans.

 Four organizations had their data streams validated as part of the pilot and early adopter programs. These organizations included Hixny, HealtheConnections, HEALTHeLINK, and Manifest MedEx.

"The Data Aggregator Validation program is important to HealtheConnections and our participants, particularly clinical practices and health plans because it provides real value in support of our ongoing work in quality measurement. Additionally, the program demonstrates HealtheConnections' commitment to data quality, data governance and process that expands beyond the realm of quality measurement," President and CEO, HealtheConnections Rob Hack said.

NCQA is validating data streams through a series of cohorts. The first was in July and included the data streams from the four organizations as well as new participants: Azara Healthcare LLC, COZEVA by Applied Research Works, Inc., CyncHealth, Diameter Health, Healthix, HealthShare Exchange, Kansas Health Information Network, Inc. (KONZA), KPI Ninja, Los Angeles Network for Enhanced Services (LANES), Stellar Health and the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN).

"We are proud to partner with NCQA in leading this important transformation effort to streamline data sharing and provide high-quality data for health plans and providers," said Claudia Williams, CEO of Manifest MedEx. "Reducing the burden of HEDIS reporting enables plans and providers to focus on what matters most—caring for patients and their communities."

This program is part of a broader initiative as NCQA to assist with making quality measurements easier, more trusted, and more relevant. NCQA is also partnering with QMetrics to validate data streams in two cohorts this year.

More than 40 organizations have requested to apply for the program, and the first data streams will begin earning validation in the fall.