CFR > Title 42 - Public Health > CHAPTER IV—CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES > SUBCHAPTER C—MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS (parts 430 to 456) > PART 438—MANAGED CARE > SUBPART E—External Quality Review (§438.310 to §438.370) > 438.354—Qualifications of external quality review organizations.

438.354—Qualifications of external quality review organizations.

(a) General rule. The State must ensure that an EQRO meets the requirements of this section.
(b) Competence. The EQRO must have at a minimum the following:
(1) Staff with demonstrated experience and knowledge of—
(i) Medicaid recipients, policies, data systems, and processes;
(ii) Managed care delivery systems, organizations, and financing;
(iii) Quality assessment and improvement methods; and
(iv) Research design and methodology, including statistical analysis.
(2) Sufficient physical, technological, and financial resources to conduct EQR or EQR-related activities.
(3) Other clinical and nonclinical skills necessary to carry out EQR or EQR-related activities and to oversee the work of any subcontractors.
(c) Independence. The EQRO and its subcontractors are independent from the State Medicaid agency and from the MCOs or PIHPs that they review. To qualify as “independent”—
(1) A State agency, department, university, or other State entity may not have Medicaid purchasing or managed care licensing authority; and
(2) A State agency, department, university, or other State entity must be governed by a Board or similar body the majority of whose members are not government employees.
(3) An EQRO may not—
(i) Review a particular MCO or PIHP if either the EQRO or the MCO or PIHP exerts control over the other (as used in this paragraph, “control” has the meaning given the term in 48 CFR 19.101) through—
(A) Stock ownership;
(B) Stock options and convertible debentures;
(C) Voting trusts;
(D) Common management, including interlocking management; and
(E) Contractual relationships.
(ii) Deliver any health care services to Medicaid recipients;
(iii) Conduct, on the State's behalf, ongoing Medicaid managed care program operations related to oversight of the quality of MCO or PIHP services, except for the related activities specified in § 438.358; or
(iv) Have a present, or known future, direct or indirect financial relationship with an MCO or PIHP that it will review as an EQRO.