This week the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) released draft criteria for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a promising new model of health care delivery. A statement from Kirsten Sloan, Vice President of the National Partnership for Women & Families, follows. Sloan sits on the NCQA panel of experts responsible for developing the draft criteria.

“We applaud NCQA’s commitment to drafting these standards with consumer input and we are extremely encouraged that the draft standards currently reflect many of the needs of patients particularly those with multiple chronic conditions and their families.

ACOs are new provider-based models of health care delivery that seek to meet the health care needs of a defined population. This new model has the potential to improve the way care is delivered, but only if ACOs are designed and built in ways that result in truly patient-centered care. The NCQA standards were developed with the guidance of a multi-stakeholder task force, including representation from consumers and patients, which is key to making sure ACOs are patient- and family-centered.

NCQA now seeks public comment on the draft criteria, creating another important opportunity for consumer input.”