CHICAGO-Smoothing over anger about intrusive office inspections, the AMA has kept its edgy relations with the National Committee for Quality Assurance on an even keel.
At the urging of its leaders, the House of Delegates rejected a New York proposal to have the AMA label NCQA as “not competent” to determine criteria for physician credentialing. Instead, the delegates agreed to label NCQA as “not appropriate” to determine credentialing criteria.
Delegates also defused an Arizona proposal that asked the AMA to study whether NCQA is promoting high-quality care, and if not, to replace its inspections with an AMA process.
Dr. Joseph Hanss Jr., a Phoenix ob-gyn, says that health plans seeking NCQA accreditation send out inspectors who examine factors that have little to do with quality care, such as the order of medical charts.
But a doctor familiar with NCQA says that health plans may be using it as a convenient scapegoat. Plans frequently supplement NCQA criteria with their own, but when physicians complain, the plans insist that NCQA is the culprit, he says.
At the urging of AMA leaders, the house adopted a resolution stating that the AMA will simply study the NCQA and will discuss quality review recommendations with insurers and medical specialty societies.
Some say turf battles between the two groups are inevitable. But both AMA and NCQA say they are not in competition because the AMA’s new accreditation program deals with individual doctors, while NCQA concentrates on plans. -Christina Kent
CHICAGO-Smoothing over anger about intrusive office inspections, the AMA has kept its edgy relations with the National Committee for Quality Assurance on an even keel.
