athenahealth Launches Program to Help PCPs Achieve NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Standards

athenahealth's PCMH Accelerator Program aids practices in obtaining NCQA recognition faster, more easily

athenahealth Inc., the Watertown, Mass.-based provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and patient communication services to medical groups, announced that it will launch a new Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Accelerator Program designed to assist primary care physician groups in meeting the National Committee for Quality Assurance's (NCQA) newest PCMH recognition standards. NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home delivery model has emerged as a highly attractive centerpiece of health care reform because of its potential to support total care coordination and to engage a patient, the primary care physician, and the patient's family in the delivery of that care. Through its aggressive mission of improving care through measurement, transparency, and accountability, NCQA has developed the nation's most widely adopted medical home standards.

athenahealth has aligned with NCQA to advance this mission. The company's cloud-based EHR offering is the first to have undergone a corporate review process whereby it has been qualified as a service that helps primary care physicians to participate in the PCMH incentive model more quickly and with less strain on their workflow.