The high price of quality: a cost analysis of NCQA accreditation.

Payers and consumers across the United States are expressing discontent with their health plans. We are witnessing a market-based demand for accreditation as a guarantee of acceptable quality in health services. Increasingly, accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is being viewed as the "gold standard" for health plans. This article presents a model for allocating resources and a cost analysis of anticipated expenditures associated with achieving this objective.