Recently, I was invited to attend a meeting with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (NAHPC) focused on mental health and substance use care. The meeting included stakeholders from around Maryland that are participating in a nationally funded initiative to improve health care and close the gaps in care that employers are seeing in their workforce. My invitation was directly related to the work URAC has been doing on Integrated Behavioral Health and our new work on Mental Health Parity.

Formerly CHQI’s Telemedicine Accreditation Program (TAP) v2.1, we are pleased to announce that the publications are now available for URAC’s Telehealth Accreditation v2.2 program. Product Development, in consultation with URAC CEO Shawn Griffin, MD and Karen Watts, Vice President, Accreditation and Client Services, elected to make rebranding modifications and minor edits to the program acquired as part of the CHQI asset purchase.

As you’re aware, URAC started the new year with the purchase of CHQI’s telemedicine and Mental Health/Substance Use Disorder Parity (Parity) products. The purchase of these products marked a concerted effort to expand our footprint in two areas that are vital to the future of care delivery in America.

For the past 30 years, URAC has worked hard to provide the gold standard of accreditation. We believe our process demonstrates a commitment to quality services and serves as a framework for organizations to protect patients and save lives.

For those who have started their journey in January, we are excited to begin down this path with them and also offer our congratulations to all the organizations who received accreditation and reaccreditation this month:

The Monthly Review spotlights a different URACer each month in a Q&A. This month it's Josh Spofford, URAC's Quality Manager.

We are off to a huge start this year – new programs, a new space and new clients to serve! Many of you heard about the exciting changes we have been working on as 2019 ended and the launch of our newest programs to kick off January.

After a great deal of collaboration and hard work from many of our staff, we are excited to announce the launch of URAC’s Rare Disease Pharmacy Center of Excellence Designation program.