Comments to NCQA on Technical Specifications for ACOs
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently released its Technical Specifications for Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Measures, a draft plan to define patient populations, standardize measure reporting, and establish data collection and sampling methods for core performance measures. The plan also includes specifications for five selected measures that illustrate the application of the general guidelines for ACO measurement to the actual measure specification (1/ Colorectal Cancer Screening, 2/ Comprehensive Adult Diabetes Care—LDL Control, 3/ Use of Appropriate Medications for People With Asthma, 4/ Use of Imaging Studies for Low Back Pain, 5/ Follow-Up After Hospitalization for Mental Illness). AOTA submitted comments to NCQA on these Technical Specifications on April 5, 2012, emphasizing the importance of using care provided by occupational therapy practitioners to measure plurality of care, requesting data links for different tools, and noting the value of occupational therapy for medication management.
