Quality Matters: A Podcast by NCQA

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Katharine Iskrant, Practice Leader of Healthy People, Inc. , joins Matt Brock, NCQA Director of Communications, for a conversation about the benefits of electronic clinical data system reporting for federal and state stakeholders, health plans, providers and patients. Katharine talks about her experiences as a certified compliance HEDIS auditor and how she...

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Catherine Macpherson, Vice President of Product Strategy and Development and Chief Nutrition Officer of Mom’s Meals , joins Matt Brock, NCQA Director of Communications, to discuss how Mom’s Meals is addressing social determinants of health. What began as acts of kindness for family members transitioned to a company that provides home-delivered meals for hea...

On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Peggy O’Kane, NCQA President, and Frank Micciche, NCQA VP of Public Affairs and Communications, discuss challenges and exciting developments in health care and at NCQA in 2020. Peggy talks about the role technology companies will play in health care and voices her excitement (and concerns) about who will provide health insurance options in the future. Peggy...

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Shari Davidson, Head of Benefits for the city of Alexandria, VA, and Matt Brock, NCQA Director of Communications, discuss delivering high-quality health care to more than 3,500 Alexandria city employees. Shari talks about the top priorities she implemented that promote the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of employees. She discusses how Alexandr...

In this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Peggy O’Kane, NCQA President, and Frank Micciche, NCQA VP of Public Affairs and Communications, begin with a discussion about the concept of “quality-adjusted life year (QALY)” and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s bill proposing new health care legislation that would require providers and insurers to spend more on primary care and behavioral health in...

On this episode of Inside Health Care , we speak with Philip Saynisch, PhD, NCQA’s 2019 Phyllis Torda Health Care Quality Fellowship recipient and recent Harvard University graduate. He discusses his background, the current focus of his research and how he learned about the Phyllis Torda Health Care Quality Fellowship. Dr. Saynisch’s work aims to identify performance drivers for health care organi...

On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” Peggy O’Kane, NCQA President, and Frank Micciche, NCQA VP of Public Affairs and Communications, discuss the unintended consequences of crafting health care policy. Topics in this episode range from President Trump changing kick-back rules for health care providers, to the systemization of health care delivery, to lessons from the passage of the Affordable C...

With over 120 sites, CityMD is the leading urgent care provider in the New York metropolitan area and has earned NCQA Patient-Centered Connected Care Recognition for all of its eligible urgent care centers in New York, New Jersey and Seattle, Washington. Dr. Frank Illuzzi, CityMD NCQA took a road trip to CityMD headquarters, to talk about how it coordinates care between patients, specialists and p...

How do we help employers help their employees? The employer market covers 180 million people in the United States—the largest payer of health care services. On this episode of “Inside Health Care”, NCQA welcomes Ellen Kelsay, Chief Strategy Officer for the National Business Group on Health. Based in Washington, D.C, the Business Group is a nonprofit membership-based organization that works with la...

NCQA President Peggy O’Kane discusses her appointment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Quality Summit group. Peggy is serving among some of the nation’s top health care policy leaders to advise the government on the challenges ahead and the proposed solutions to address them. NCQA Public Policy Vice President Frank Micciche asks the questions. The two also discuss the on-again,...

We are facing a national crisis. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, each day more than 130 people in the United States die from an opioid overdose. How are health care professionals tackling this issue? On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” we chat with Dr. Daniel Alford, Professor of Medicine and course director for Boston University School of Medicine’s “SCOPE of Pain” safer o...

On this edition of “Inside Health Care” we catch up with NCQA Founder and President, Peggy O’ Kane at the Digital Quality Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. O’Kane visits with NCQA Asst. Vice President Andy Reynolds, External Relations. They discuss the Summit, the future of Digital Quality and much more. Please be sure to give us a rating on your podcast player to help us increase the reach of “Ins...

People get their health care from many different places, and information about their health sits in those many different places. Why does this matter? For providers caring for patients, a fuller picture of th e car e th eir patient has received means the provider has the tools to understand their needs and make better recommendations . The HEDIS ECDS measures promote that principle. ECDS stands fo...

The conversation about the quality of maternal health in the United States has suddenly become more urgent. In 2019 American women have more chance of dying in childbirth than women do in any other industrialized nation. The maternal mortality rate in 2007 was 55 percent higher than the rate reported in 1990 , and it has only increased since then. Why is this happening? How can we improve Maternal...

In 2017 NCQA hosted its first Digital Quality Summit, a unique (and niche) conference that focused on issues of implementing digital quality measures. Participants at that first summit comprised a handful of interested health IT wonks and others deep in the weeds of the subject. But to our surprise, the 2018 audience was a larger, more diverse gathering of tech gurus, health care professionals and...

It’s commonly assumed that people go into health care because they want to help others. They want everyone to get the care they need, when they need it most. In fact, don’t we all want that—especially when we are the patient? Unfortunately, this is not today’s reality, and discrepancies in care can depend largely on who you are. As Minority Health Month draws to a close, we’re talking with Madhyat...

On this edition of Inside Healthcare, catch up with our friend Tom Curtis, Senior Manager of Quality Improvement for the Michigan State Dept. of Health and Human Services. He sits on NCQA’s Public Sector Advisory Board. We wanted to get an inside look at the state that has grown it’s Medicaid Managed Care program under the expansion of the Affordable Care Act. It’s been about 5 years since the exp...

On this edition of “Inside Health Care” we catch up with NCQA Founder and President, Peggy O’ Kane. There’s plenty to talk about. Most of this conversation concentrates on the technology revolution already underway in terms of health data collection and analysis. She points out quality improvement’s role in the revolution and what it means for the industry’s future. Please be sure to come back her...

NCQA’s podcast Inside Health Care is back with a topic making a lot of news recently: ICD-10 diagnostic codes that capture social determinants of health. In this episode, Matt Brock, NCQA’s Director of Communications, chats with Sheila Shapiro, UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) Vice President for National Strategic Partnerships. Sheila talks about UHC’s efforts to promote these new codes. Medicare provider...

It’s hard for me to remember a time when I wasn’t struggling with mental health issues. It’s even harder for me a remember a time when I wasn’t ashamed to talk about it. Even now, I still fear the reaction this kind of admission might invite from friends and professional peers. That’s why I am pleased and honored to interview Paul Gionfriddo for this edition of Inside Health Care. Paul is Presiden...

In this episode of our podcast, Inside Health Care , NCQA Director of Communications, Matt Brock, spoke with Andrew Anderson, NCQA’s Phyllis Torda Health Care Quality Fellowship recipient. Anderson discusses his background and future plans, and how he learned about the Phyllis Torda Health Care Quality Fellowship. Anderson, a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, also discusses his new pape...

Dr. Ted Abernathy In this edition of our podcast, Inside Healthcare , NCQA traveled to Midlothian, Virginia, to speak to Dr. Ted Abernathy, founder of Pediatric and Adolescent Health Partners, a NCQA-Recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home. In this podcast, Dr. Abernathy discusses how this care helps enhance clinicians’ responsiveness, significantly reduces patient stress, and improves cohesivene...

Quality Talks 2018 sneaked up on us quickly—it’s just a few weeks away! And here’s a “sneak” peek at one of our electrifying Quality Talks speakers, Liz Salmi. Unlike a lot of our speakers, who knew right away they wanted to be involved in medicine, Liz followed a different path. You could say that getting sick sparked her interest in health care: She has been living with brain cancer for 10 years...

In this week’s edition of our podcast, Inside Healthcare , NCQA traveled to Midlothian, Virginia, to speak to patients at Pediatric and Adolescent Health Partners, an NCQA-Recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home. We sat down with Angela Ogden, a teacher and single mother of three. Angela Ogden Angela has one biological child and two adopted children. Her two adopted children, Christine and Ariel,...

Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death, but when it comes to screening for alcohol use and providing the right follow-up care, there is large gap in care. The National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) researched this issue and found a shortage of screening for misuse of alcohol. But when screenings do take place – like when doctors ask their patients about their drinkin...