NCQA To Judge Plans on Drug Monitoring

MANAGED CARE April 2002. ©MediMedia USA

Health plans could soon be required to develop systems to prevent drug interactions, as well as systems to monitor drug recalls and FDA alerts, under proposed accreditation standards issued recently by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

In the event of such problems, the health plans would then have to alert pharmacists, patients, and providers.

Plans are uniquely positioned to do this, says NCQA spokesman Brian Schilling, because claims information contains pharmaceutical data.

"Health plans, of course, are involved in the process of developing accreditation standards, so I think that if they felt that this wasn't doable, we would have heard by now that it's not feasible," Schilling says.