CMS Renews the Main Quality Accreditor for Medicare Advantage Plans for Six More Years

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved a six-year renewal of the National Committee for Quality Assurance's Medicare Advantage deeming authority, publishing the notice in the Federal Register on July 27, 2026.

Under the deeming framework, Medicare Advantage HMOs and PPOs that hold NCQA accreditation are considered to have automatically met certain CMS oversight requirements, without a separate federal review for those areas. The arrangement lets CMS rely on NCQA's process rather than duplicate it, while still holding plans accountable to federal standards.

NCQA has held Medicare Advantage deeming authority for several consecutive terms. The organization submitted its renewal application in December 2025, and CMS confirmed the new six-year term in late July 2026, extending coverage through late 2032.

For Medicare enrollees, the arrangement is largely behind the scenes but carries practical weight. NCQA accreditation standards address access to care, care management, and quality improvement. Plans that hold NCQA accreditation have been evaluated against independent benchmarks in addition to CMS requirements. Enrollees can verify whether their plan carries NCQA accreditation through the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov.