The National Committee for Quality Assurance will "continue to evolve" its patient-centered medical home standards, the organization said in response to a recent PCMH study published in JAMA.
The study found a pilot PCMH initiative yielded few quality gains and did nothing to reduce utilization of services or costs, and concluded the PCMH model may need "further refinement."
"The study is based on the earliest (2008) version of our PCMH program," the NCQA statement says. "We updated the standards in 2011 and will update them again in March 2014. In effect, we have already — twice — done the 'further refinement' the study recommends."
The NCQA noted other studies have shown PCMHs have in fact improved quality and patient experience.
NCQA's new PCMH standards, to be released in March, will include the following, according to the statement:
• Alignment with meaningful use stage 2 incentives
• More emphasis on team-based care
• Care management focus on high-need populations
• Alignment with the triple aim for quality improvement activities
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