(NCQA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) program recently earned an important endorsement from a respected coalition of employer, consumer, and labor organizations. The Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, a group supported by more than 50 employer, consumer, and labor organizations, has endorsed standards of the PHQ program that assess how health plans and other entities measure and report on the quality and cost of physicians. In April, the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project released the “Patient Charter for Physician Performance Measurement, Reporting and Tiering Programs.” The charter reflects the voices of purchaser, consumer, and labor organizations and outlines principles for health plans to measure and report physician performance reliably and equitably. Health insurers and physician groups have voiced support for the charter. Health plans representing over 200 million Americans have adopted the charter’s measurement and reporting principles and agreed to bring their physician-measurement initiatives forward for independent review. The Disclosure Project’s endorsement of NCQA’s physician-measurement standards designates NCQA PHQ certification as evidence of such commitment to the charter’s principles. Aetna, CIGNA HealthCare, and Geisinger Health Plan are the first to commit to be reviewed under PHQ 2008 standards for the purpose of meeting the charter’s principles. “Consumers, purchasers, and policymakers have taken a keen interest in making sure that the information patients use to choose a doctor is information they can trust,” says Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president. “The endorsement of the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project is a welcome testament to the reliability and fairness built into our standards for physician measurement.” “NCQA’s standards for physician measurement lay out a clear pathway for health plans and other organizations that provide consumers with information about quality and cost to help them make sound decisions,” says Peter V. Lee, executive director for national health policy of the Pacific Business Group on Health, co-chair of the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, and a member of NCQA's board of directors. “NCQA’s approach is consistent with the Patient Charter and promotes the use of sound performance measures, input from physicians, and does away with ‘black-box’ methodologies. This broad coalition of consumer and purchaser organizations is pleased to endorse the standards.” First launched in 2006, the NCQA PHQ program emphasizes the use of standardized measures and sound methodology, and it promotes transparency to help physicians and patients understand how physicians are measured and rated. The program’s standards were updated in June. For more information, visit www.ncqa.org/tabid/799/Default.aspx. For more information about the program, including survey options and pricing, visit www.ncqa.org/phq.aspx or contact Jeannie L. Simpson, director of customer outreach, at (202) 955-5137.