The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently published a Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) aimed at ACO guidelines. The guide, called 2013 Technical Specifications for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), aims to help ACOs collect and report their quality performance in standardized ways. 

The HEDIS contains thirty five measures for ACOs that, NCQA says, are precise and will ultimately allow for apples to apples comparisons. The comparisons, NCQA says, should be valuable to payers and patients, while technical specifications can asssist ACOs define populations for ACO measurement, with sampling and data collection methods and report ACO performance to NCQA.

“We are excited to offer these technical specifications because they will provide a standardized method for evaluating an ACO’s performance,” Mary Barton, NCQA vice president of performance measurement, said in a statement. “Releasing these measure specifications is also an important step in making ACOs a functioning, vibrant part of American health care.”