DMAA, NCQA Collaborate on Disease Management Clinical Measures

WASHINGTON, DC—The Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today announced a collaborative agreement to develop performance measures in clinical areas for disease management.

The collaboration will advance an important initiative DMAA launched in 2006 to establish consensus guidelines for evaluating clinical and financial outcomes of disease management programs. That initiative produced a comprehensive guidelines document DMAA formally released today, at its 8th Annual Disease Management Leadership Forum, in Denver.

NCQA was among various nationally recognized and respected quality and accreditation organizations that contributed comment and other support during the guidelines development process, which emphasized inclusiveness and transparency.

"DMAA is committed to establishing close working relationships with all stakeholders in the disease management and care coordination community, especially those with a strong focus on quality," DMAA Executive Director Tracey Moorhead said. "Certainly, NCQA's highly regarded accreditation programs and development processes have been an important part of the evolution of disease management. On behalf of our members, I am delighted to have this opportunity to further enhance the delivery of quality, coordinated health care programs."

"Millions of Americans live with chronic medical conditions. Disease management is a key part of a spectrum of care that can improve their health and the quality of their lives," said Esther Emard, NCQA's chief operating officer. "NCQA is delighted to have an opportunity to work with DMAA to advance a common agenda of measurement and reporting on the quality of these vital services."

The collaborative agreement with NCQA is the first of several DMAA hopes to forge in the second phase of its guidelines project, scheduled to begin in January 2007. In this new phase, DMAA will seek to work with quality and accreditation leaders to develop a full set of clinical measures, quality measures, productivity measures, and process and utilization measures. Other priority areas include development of disease-specific population selection criteria, further refinement of the initial guidelines, and collaboration to "test drive" different methodologies.

# # #

About DMAA
The Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) a non-profit membership association, represents all stakeholders in disease management and care coordination. DMAA promotes the role of disease management in raising the quality of care, improving health outcomes and reducing health care costs for individuals with chronic conditions. DMAA has more than 200 corporate and individual members representing all aspects of disease management and care coordination—from large health plans, disease management organizations and employers, to individual physicians, researchers and nurses. Learn more by visiting DMAA online at www.dmaa.org.

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, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS, the tool the nation's health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.