Margaret E. O'Kane is the founding and current president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She serves on the National Governors Association's State Health Policy Advisory Board[1] and has served as the co-chair National Priorities Partnership. As a thought leader on health care quality, O'Kane has testified many times before Congress.[2]
She holds a B.A. in French from Fordham University and an M.H.S. in health administration and planning from Johns Hopkins University.[3]
O'Kane started her career as an elementary school teacher and a respiratory therapist.[4]
She worked for the United States Department of Health & Human Services, AHRQ, an HMO trade association, and with state policy makers.
O'Kane founded the National Committee for Quality Assurance in 1990 as an independent organization focused on healthcare quality.[5] During her tenure, NCQA developed, maintained and expanded the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), the nation's most-widely used quality measurement tool.[6] NCQA has grown to plus $60 million company with over 300 employees and is the main accreditor of recognized medical homes[7]
Modern Healthcare has named O’Kane one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” 11 times, most recently in 2016, and one of the “Top 25 Women in Healthcare” 3 times.[8] [9] [10] She received the 2012 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.[11] She also received a Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, in 2012.[12] [13] In 2009, she received the 2009 Picker Award for Excellence® in the Advancement of Patient-Centered Care.[14] [15] O'Kane was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1999.[16] She is a board member of the Milbank Memorial Fund and the National Coalition on Health Care, and is Chairman of the Board of Healthwise, a nonprofit organization that helps people make better health decisions.[17] [18]
O'Kane has two adult daughters; one is a health care communications consultant in New York and the other is a civil rights attorney in New Orleans. O'Kane is a Maryland resident, an avid skier and a trainee at the Meditation Teacher Training Institute.