Accreditation is a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process through which NCQA assesses the quality of the key systems and processes that define health care organizations.   Accreditation includes an assessment of the care and service that plans deliver in important areas like childhood immunizations and ensuring that women receive mammograms as appropriate.  NCQA began accrediting MCOs in 1991, in response to the need for standardized, objective information about the quality of these health care organizations.

Employers, consumers, regulators and health plans turn to NCQA Accreditation as the gold standard in evaluating health care quality. NCQA regularly revises and improves standards in order to keep the Accreditation Program current and to address pressing health care issues.