Nation's top health care quality organization recognizes state's largest health plan for efforts to eliminate health inequities
BOSTON, March 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) today announced it has earned Health Equity Accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a non-profit organization that is the nation's authority on health care quality. Blue Cross is the largest health plan in Massachusetts to achieve Health Equity Accreditation, affirming its commitment to addressing and eliminating health inequities.
"This accreditation is a testament to our team's long-standing efforts to show up for our members and work collaboratively with our partners to eliminate inequities in care," said Blue Cross President and CEO Sarah Iselin. "We know that change can't be made overnight, and we remain committed to driving meaningful, measurable impact that moves us closer to a more equitable health system."
Blue Cross earned this NCQA accreditation after undertaking a rigorous 8-month process. As the industry gold standard for validating health care quality, NCQA's Health Equity Accreditation evaluates how well an organization complies with standards in the following six areas:
- Organizational readiness
- Race/ethnicity, language, gender identity and sexual orientation
- Access and availability of language services
- Practitioner network cultural responsiveness
- Culturally and linguistically appropriate services programs
- Reducing health care disparities
A commitment to health equity
Blue Cross is a recognized national leader in addressing inequities in health care. Highlights include:
- We were the first health plan in Massachusetts — and among the nation's first – to introduce a pay-for-equity financial payment model with a goal of eliminating inequities in health care.
- We became the first health plan to collect data on inequities in health care and recently published our fifth annual health equity report.
- In 2022, we funded $25 million in Institute for Healthcare Improvement grants to support physician practices and hospitals in our value-based network in their efforts to eliminate inequities in care and to share learnings across institutions.
About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to showing up for everyone like they're the only one and guiding our members to the exceptional health care they deserve – affordably, equitably and seamlessly. In keeping with our commitment, we are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more-informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.
SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts