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The NCQA Health Equity Accreditation (HEA) is no longer “the new thing”—it’s becoming the standard.

As of August 15, 2025, 323 health plans have earned accreditation, and 38 have achieved the advanced Health Equity Plus Accreditation (HEA Plus), according to NCQA’s Report Cards.

At Managed Healthcare Resources (MHR), we’ve been walking alongside organizations on this journey since the early days of the Multicultural Health Care (MHC) Distinction. Over the years, we’ve seen where health plans trip up—and where they shine.

The good news? The pitfalls are predictable, and so are the solutions.

Here’s our take on the most common challenges—and the best practices that actually move the needle:

• Making the most of state and community-level data
• Assessing interpreter and bilingual services
• Sharing accurate language information across your network
• Measuring how responsive your providers really are
• Bringing community-based organizations (CBOs) to the table
• Reporting outcomes with substance (not just surface-level metrics)

Whether you’re just starting out, keeping your accreditation current, or trying to recover from a rocky cycle, these lessons will save time, stress, and energy.

Start With What You Already Have

Too often, health plans hit “reset” when pursuing HEA. Instead of building on their Health Plan Accreditation processes, they start from scratch—and the result is wasted effort, staff fatigue, and missed deadlines.

Our advice: don’t reinvent the wheel. Inventory your current data sources, programs, and processes, then map them against HEA requirements. You’ll likely find that much of the foundation is already there.

Best practice checklist:

• Review HEA standards and line them up with your existing programs.
• Confirm whether you have the right tools and templates to meet documentation requirements.
• Bring in outside guidance when needed—MHR consultants can quickly tell you which HEA-specific tools will save you time and headaches.

Use the Right Data for Language Profiles (HE 2C)

Language is core to health equity. But if you’re relying on outdated or incomplete population data, your compliance—and your members—suffer.

What NCQA expects: use state census and community-level data at least every three years. Demographics can shift quickly, and you’ll miss those shifts if you don’t look closely enough. For national plans, national census data is acceptable.

Best practices:

• Pair census data collection with a check on whether your language services are actually meeting needs.
• Use tools like MHR’s Population Language Profile Template to make the process faster and more reliable.

Make Language Services Consistent (HE 3B & 3C)

We see this one a lot: interpreter services are available, but the quality and consistency vary widely between call centers, UM teams, and provider offices. That inconsistency leads to member frustration—and survey citations.

What works:

• Set systemwide minimum standards for interpreter services.
• Establish clear feedback loops so problems get fixed instead of ignored.
• Share member language preferences directly with practitioners, in real time, not just in aggregate reports.

Keep Directories Accurate (HE 4A & 4B)

If your provider directory doesn’t accurately reflect who speaks what, members can’t make informed choices—and NCQA will notice.

Best practices:

• Build language questions into credentialing workflows.
• Separate fields for practitioner vs. staff languages.
• Assign responsibility for keeping directories updated (both online and print).
• Analyze your network’s responsiveness every three years to confirm it matches member needs.

Bring Community Voices In (HE 5A)

Community advisory groups should be more than a “check-the-box” exercise. NCQA is raising the bar—after June 30, 2026, groups must include real representation of racial, ethnic, and linguistic populations that make up at least 5% of your membership.

How to make it meaningful:

• Recruit diverse voices that truly reflect the populations you serve.
• Co-design workshops and improvement projects with community partners.
• Document not just the meeting, but how the feedback shaped policies and services.
• Close the loop by sharing back with the community what’s changed.

Don’t Skimp on Analysis (HE 6A, B & D)

Outcome measurement is where your equity efforts show results. Cutting corners here undermines the whole program.

Where we see issues:

• Plans report partial measures instead of full HEDIS sets.
• Subgroup comparisons are skipped, hiding disparities instead of addressing them.

Best practice:
Commit to full, stratified analysis every year. MHR’s Healthcare Disparities Report Template provides a ready-made structure for subgroup comparisons and actionable insights.

Action Steps to Stay Ahead

Here’s a quick recap of what works:

• Build on what you already have.
• Refresh census-level data every 36 months.
• Standardize how you collect and share language preferences.
• Align interpreter and bilingual services across all departments.
• Keep directories accurate and transparent.
• Analyze network responsiveness regularly.
• Make community input real and actionable.
• Report outcomes thoroughly—no shortcuts.

Where to Go From Here

Whether you’re launching your first HEA project, maintaining accreditation, or trying to troubleshoot gaps, MHR is here to help. We’ll align your systems with HEA standards, train your team for survey readiness, and provide proven tools and templates that take the guesswork out of compliance.

👉 Preview our Health Equity Bundle and Accreditation training.
👉 Or just ask your MHR consultant which solutions fit your organization best.

Learn more at managedhealthcareresources.com and follow us on LinkedIn for updates.

This blog was reviewed by MHR Consultant Sharon Castro, MS, BS. Meet Sharon and the rest of our team at managedhealthcareresources.com/consultants