(NQCA: Washington) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently published an expanded set of measures, guidelines, and technical specifications to allow for standardized, equitable assessment of physician practice quality. The new specifications are based on HEDIS, the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. The new publication, HEDIS Technical Specifications for Physician Measurement, introduces more than 40 measures of clinical quality, sets standards for the measurement of the cost of care, and provides standardized methods of data collection at the physician office level. The specifications account for collection of data from electronic data systems such as electronic medical records in addition to administrative claims data and paper medical records.

“Today, making objective, reliable comparisons on physician quality is quite challenging,” says NCQA vice president for Performance Measurement Joachim Roski, Ph.D., MPH. “Our approach builds on our proven track record in health plan assessment as well as the experience of physician practices, health plans, and community collaboratives to create a fair, equitable set of measures and guidelines supporting performance measurement at the physician practice level.”

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