Quality Matters: A Podcast by NCQA

On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” we hear from Tracy Parris-Benjamin , Director for Community Health and Health Equity at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey , about its 2022 NCQA Innovation Award -winning program “Neighbors in Health.” “Neighbors in Health” is a statewide Community Health Workers program delivered through a collaboration of payers, hospital systems and community-b...

On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” we revisit our 2022 Health Innovation Summit interview with Dr. Don Rucker, a leader in health care digitalization. As you might have experienced, when you go from one doctor to the next, your health records don’t always go with you. Dr. Rucker’s provides insight into interoperability: getting health care software systems to send electronic health records,...

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” we discuss both gender health equity and today’s pharmacists, and their roles and positions in the health care ecosystem. Both guests in this episode’s interview, recorded live at NCQA’s inaugural Health Innovation Summit in November 2022, are board-certified geriatric pharmacists for Consana , a pharmaceutically centered health care company working to chan...

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” featuring NCQA’s President, Peggy O’Kane, we look back at the challenges and successes of 2022 and consider what lies ahead for quality in 2023. Peggy and NCQA’s Vice President of Public Policy and External Relations, Frank Micciche, discuss a wide range of issues, including NCQA’s Health Equity Accreditation programs , the launch of our annual Health Innov...

This episode of “Inside Health Care” features three interviews recorded live at NCQA’s inaugural Health Innovation Summit in November 2022. We first talk about the national "988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline" with a broader look at behavioral health crisis management at the national, county and community levels. Later on, we get an inside look at NCQA’s Recognition programs . John Palmieri, MD , is...

First on this episode of Inside Health Care, we discuss Health Equity in an interview with Darrell M. Gray II, MD , the first Chief Health Equity Officer for Elevance Health . The company, as announced in Fall 2022, was one of 9 companies to earn distinction in both of NCQA's Health Equity Accreditation programs . This interview is one of three podcast interviews conducted in coordination with Ele...

On this episode of Inside Health Care, we help observe the Lung Cancer Awareness month of November with a talk on advances in lung cancer screening. This interview, recorded at our Inside Health Care podcast center at the 2022 Health Innovation Summit, is sponsored by AstraZeneca. Dr. Raymond Osarogiagbon is the Chief Scientist at Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation, headquartered in Memphis,...

We continue our limited Inside Health Care series, A View from the Summit, featuring interviews recorded in person with speakers and staff from NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit . In this mini episode, we hear from Geisinger President and CEO, Jaewon Ryu, MD, JD , as we explore a common topic of discussion on Inside Health Care, value-based models of care. Whether it’s talking about payment mo...

We continue our limited series, "A View from the Summit," as we're recording live interviews this week from NCQA’s first annual Health Innovation Summit , hosted this year at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, DC. In this episode, we’re talking about diabetes. But as often on this show, we’re not really just talking about diabetes. Diabetes is so prevalent in the U.S., it permeates the heal...

We continue our limited Inside Health Care series, A View from the Summit, featuring interviews recorded in person with speakers and staff from NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit . In this mini episode, we feature part of an interview with Summit speaker and interoperability expert Dr. Don Rucker . This mini episode focuses on the efforts to make the exchange of digital health records and other...

Welcome again to our limited series, A View from the Summit, featuring in-person interviews conducted at NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit . In this mini episode, we explore Behavioral Health Crisis Care and one powerful tool created by the Federal government, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. John Palmieri, MD, MHA , is a Senior Medical Advisor at SAMHSA. He’s also Acting Director for the...

We continue our limited Inside Health Care series, A View from the Summit, featuring interviews recorded in person with speakers and staff from NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit . This mini episode features my quick but informative conversation with the head of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health plan, Diane Holder . Ms. Holder brings over 30 years of health care and health insu...

Welcome again to our limited series, A View from the Summit, featuring in-person interviews conducted at NCQA's first Health Innovation Summit . We continue our ongoing podcast discussions regarding hospital at home with two guests representing Kaiser Permanente. Nobody wants to be in the hospital at all, or no more than necessary. And in a time when open beds are scarce – and medical staff number...

Over the course of this week, "Inside Health Care" is conducting live in-person interviews with speakers and participants at this year’s Health Innovation Summit, which we’re holding in Washington, DC. NCQA Vice President for Public Policy & External Relations Frank Micciche joined us for insights into the goings-on here at the 2022 Health Innovation Summit. We spoke about the agenda, some key spe...

When it comes to carrying a child in the time of pandemic, what are the options for care that keep the parent and child as safe as possible? At this year’s NCQA Health Innovation Summit, we heard some answers from Dr. Nancy Gin and Dr. Brenda Jackson, both of Kaiser Permanente. Together, the offered a presentation titled: Reducing perinatal risk, improving access, and reducing disparities through...

In the health care world, we talk about “value-based care” in terms of putting patients first, listening to patients’ stories and giving thoughtful input. Sometimes we talk about “value-based payment models”—where providers and clinicians are encouraged to base their payment drivers on achieving positive patient outcomes rather than on a purely financial basis. But as we look to 2023, could it be...

At NCQA, we believe and solidly state the following principles : • High quality care is equitable care. AND -- • There is no quality without equity. This is evidenced by NCQA’s Health Equity Accreditation and Health Equity Accreditation Plus programs . In this episode, we meet representatives of one of the first nine health care companies to achieve both Health Equity Accreditations, Simply Health...

In this episode, we find a fascinating look at one state’s efforts to develop changes that will indelibly improve Health Equity for their citizens. There are so many ways in which Health Equity initiatives can be implemented on the state level. And it doesn’t have to start with some kind of legislation. In this interview, NCQA Assistant Vice President for State Affairs Kristine Toppe moderates a d...

In this BONUS episode of Inside Health Care, you'll find the full interview with Louisiana Medicaid leaders on a new framework for improving Health Equity at the state level. In this interview, NCQA Assistant Vice President for State Affairs Kristine Toppe moderates a discussion with state Medicaid quality leaders from Louisiana. They discuss a new report , funded by the California Health Care Fou...

We begin this episode with a special appearance from NCQA President Peggy O’Kane, giving us exciting news about NCQA’s first annual, live, in person, 4-day Health Innovation Summit! Join us October 31-November 3, 2022, in Washington, DC. Go to https://www.ncqasummit.com to register. For our featured interviews this week, we discuss NCQA's Person-Centered Outcome Measures. Imagine a clinician askin...

On this episode of “Inside Health Care”, we talk with Eric Gremminger , CEO and Co-Founder of ERPHealth . Eric is an Internationally Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and a nationally recognized leader in the behavioral health space. Since 2014, Eric has trained behavioral healthcare professionals around the country on how to use patient reported outcome measures to personalize clinical curricu...

NCQA stands at the forefront of the effort to identify and firmly resolve the issues of health inequity. Our Health Equity Accreditation Programs help the health care industry re-evaluate how to advance health equity for all. As part of our dedication to closing Equity gaps, NCQA continues to expand our team as we welcome Dr. Bryan O. Buckley as NCQA’s Director for Health Equity Initiatives. In th...

This episode of Inside Health Care begins with a look at interoperability: the hopeful goal of getting health information systems - and providers - to share data efficiently and effectively. As patients journey from primary doctors to specialists, sometimes from one hospital system to another, all the caregivers have to keep track of what the other ones have already examined, diagnosed, prescribed...

On this episode, we discuss an all-too-often underdiagnosed disease: NASH, a.k.a. nonalcoholic steatohepatitis , a severe form of “fatty liver” disease. Though NASH can affect people who are obese or diabetic with high cholesterol, it can also hit someone who’s relatively healthy and who doesn’t even drink alcohol. It’s because of this and other factors that liver disease can be easily underdiagno...

With more than 80 broadcasts under our belt, our latest spotlights an incredibly important running theme in our show: Health Equity. You’ll hear segments from past episodes of Inside Health Care and three cutting-edge thought leaders, each dedicated to resolving Equity gaps for all. In our fight to bridge the Health Equity gaps in the U.S. once and for all, NCQA launched the H.E.A.: the Health Equ...