As an accreditation organization, URAC prides itself on not only the quality and thoroughness of our Standards, but also on the renewed focus of continuous performance improvement that URAC brings to an organization through its Measures submission requirements.  The unasked question, “How does URAC ensure that the Standards and Measures brought to the table are meaningful, ensuring excellence and value?” is key to understanding the Accreditation process. 

Standard and Measure development initiates with the URAC Advisory Groups whose membership is multi-disciplinary and includes consumers. Once developed Standards and Measures are posted for a 30-day public comment. Finally, key URAC Clients participate in Beta testing. These early adopters make a huge impact on final revisions to the URAC programs. 

Recently, the technology team at URAC was asked to address the software needs surrounding this effort, specifically enhancing the Public Comment process. Public Comment is a crucial component not only in engaging our clients, but also the public whose healthcare URAC vows to protect. In healthcare,  lack of input from multiple stakeholders can result in less than desirable outcomes. There are too many players, too many viewpoints that are interdependent. URAC’s public comment period methodically addresses this issue. The thorough review of the submitted viewpoints is a painstaking process. All comments are analyzed and considered regarding the specific intent of URAC’s Standards and Measures. All feedback is taken into consideration. Further, URAC reserves the right to re-initiate a comment period to further ensure a successful collaboration with our stakeholders.

The process of reviewing and commenting on URAC Standards and Measures is complex and lengthy.  Clients may need to pinpoint their feedback to a specific sub-measure or they may wish to provide generalized feedback to the overall process. The interface used for public comment submission must be intuitive and inviting. URAC’s partnership with our selected vendor is integral to the experience. The public comment format is carefully planned in conjunction with the URAC team. Finally, extraction of the data from the tool needs to lend itself to ease of analysis to further refine the URAC product. All of this work, and the many layers, will result in a program designed to protect and empower consumers