NCQA requirements: friend or foe?

In this time of intensified cost-containment pressures and low funding for behavioral healthcare services, organizations are particularly sensitive to externally imposed requirements that add expense and administrative burden. As a tradeoff, the contribution of such requirements to the overall quality of behavioral health services is vitally important. The requirements of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) have stimulated many intensely felt reactions among a wide range of managed behavioral healthcare stakeholders, undoubtedly because of the substantial impact those requirements are creating. The reactions portrayed in this dialogue section, from representatives of the payor, purchaser, provider and consumer communities and from NCQA itself, indicate the ambivalence stakeholders have toward the quality-assurance movement.