Beyond the Badge: Data Quality in the Age of Continuous Validation

When NCQA validated its first ten clinical data streams in late 2021, Data Aggregator Validation looked like an experiment. Four years on, it looks like infrastructure. The program’s eleventh cohort opened in January 2026, and NCQA reports that fifty organizations across twenty-one states have now completed more than 130 validations. For health information exchanges (HIEs), a validated data stream has become something close to a credential of legitimacy. This is proof to health plans that the clinical data flowing out the door can be trusted for HEDIS reporting without redundant and costly work to prove data integrity all the way back to the source electronic health records at hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Jason Buckner, CIO of Manifest MedEx in California, recently spoke about data quality during a webinar hosted by CIVITAS Networks for Health called “NCQA DAV for HIEs: The Journey and What to Expect.” In a follow-up conversation, Buckner reiterated one of his key points during the presentation: “HIEs must be willing to take responsibility for data quality, extending back to where the data was first entered.”

Read the full article featuring Manifest MedEx published by HealthIT Answers.