NCQA President Peggy O'Kane on Women's Leadership in Healthcare

"We have this superpower of connecting with each other," noted the industry leader at the NCQA's recent Health Innovation Summit.

The NCQA Health Innovation Summit (HIS) connects diverse industry leaders and innovators around a common purpose: advancing healthcare quality through data solutions. Held earlier this month, the 2024 summit addressed value-based care, health equity, digital quality solutions and behavioral health, and how they can enhance comprehensive healthcare quality.

One summit panel, Women in Quality, addressed these topics from the perspective of five female healthcare leaders:

• Vanessa Guzman, President & CEO-SmartRise Health
• Susannah Fox, HIT consultant and author of Rebel Health
• Khanh Nguyen, CEO-Cozeva
• Margaret ("Peggy") O'Kane, President-NCQA
• Lynn Todman, VP of Health Equity and Community Partnerships-Corewell Health

Guzman moderated the panel discussion, which emphasized the importance of community, leadership, and personal growth, and three key themes: the significance of integrity, the power of trust, and the impact of personal stories.

As leader of NCQA, O'Kane's insights accredit not only health plans but patient-centered medical homes with an emphasis on quality and health equity.

Embodying leadership and integrity

The panel began with a pivotal question and this response from NCQA's O'Kane.

Vanessa Guzman, CEO & President-SmartRise Health: You're all seen as leaders, as experts. You're all CEOs or in senior-level positions within your organizations. How do you embody that? What does that even feel like? How do you express it on a day-to-day basis?

Peggy O'Kane, CEO-NQCA: It's a really hard question, but I think I show up. That's it, pretty much. I have been on this job for 34 years, showing up.

Five insights from the rest of the panel included:

• Remember that every day is a job interview
• Act with integrity even when no one is watching
• Lean into personal traits and let them influence your leadership style
• Lead with purpose, curiosity and integrity
• Balance your personal and professional roles

Using your "kitchen table"

The next topic was the concept of the "kitchen table," the people in our support networks who share our core values — family, friends, colleagues, mentors — and how important it is to nurture these connections.

Guzman: What does the kitchen table look like for you? And how does that kitchen table support your core values?

O'Kane: I actually think women have this superpower of connecting with each other, and it's a big deal. There's an emotional attribute in the dedication to quality.

[O'Kane cites an example from another NCQA HIS panel — Enhancing Access to Diabetes Digital Therapeutics to Improve Outcomes: Insights from State Medicaid Programs — and one of its speakers, Leitha Harris, Population Health Branch Manager in Kentucky's Department for Medicaid Services.]

Harris was speaking about pregnant women who get gestational diabetes. She showed that many of them never received continuous glucose monitoring. CGM helps reduce the onset of Type Two Diabetes after the pregnancy is over. Harris went to bat for these women with data—and within months, she's made this amazing change. I could just feel her resonating with love for these patients.

"That is a source of incredible motivation for all of us. I see young women who work for me or work elsewhere who are not so sure of themselves. And I just say ‘It's not it's not about you. It's about this thing that you're channeling, something that's bigger than we are.' I think that's a way to kind of forget your own ego a little bit, at least for the moment, and not make yourself too crazy about getting everything perfect."

Creating a strong culture while overcoming imposter syndrome

In discussing how intimidating it can be to build and lead a culture of quality, equity and trust, an important subtopic emerged: imposter syndrome. Women in particular often struggle with it, which can keep them from taking on leadership roles.

Moderator Guzman asked each panelist if they'd encountered imposter syndrome and how they've overcome it. In addition to the collective "Yes," the responses ranged from leveraging one's unique perspectives and value to creating peer mentoring groups. The discussion came full circle with the importance of trust in building culture, a point O'Kane emphasized.

O'Kane: This subject of trust is very interesting. I think we're going through a time when people are afraid to trust. It's so massive in our society . . . It's really horrible to be facing this kind of contemptuous distrust that's out there. I don't have an answer for this. I know all of us do try to be trustworthy, but there's just something that's out there that we've got to be the antidote to in some way—in our personal lives, in our communities, and in our organizations. That's not happening overnight but it's a big deal.

The panel's parting thoughts

The NCQA HIS session ended with key takeaways for the audience:

• Do your homework and ask specific questions when seeking mentorship
• Embrace your power and pay it forward by creating paths for others
• Be conscious of living in your truth and the impact of simple acts of kindness

These takeaways emerged from the panel's final question, which O'Kane answered powerfully.

Guzman: What is your greatest wish, and would be one recommendation you would give in terms of opening the door for someone else?

O'Kane: I just want us all to live in every dimension of our lives and not only about work. I'm really obsessed about the political situation. We kind of all are. I like the idea of somehow finding a way, knowing that there's a huge business model out there that divides us. So, what are we going to do? We can't just do what we've always done.