Initial URAC accreditation is challenging. Reaccreditation, however, can be far more difficult. When it comes to achieving reaccreditation, you have 3 years of compliance to adhere to and prove. This can be especially difficult if your organization has lost key accreditation team members, as URAC accreditation knowledge and expertise can be hard to replace.
Why is maintaining my URAC Accreditation important?
Earning URAC accreditation goes beyond just a symbol; it signifies your unwavering commitment to excellence and accountability in healthcare. URAC is widely respected by payers and manufacturers for its top-notch accreditations and certifications, making it a mark of exceptional quality.
In my 20+ years of guiding organizations through the accreditation process, I have seen the devastating consequences of accreditation lapses all too often. The financial implications can be significant, with contracts hanging in the balance. Even for those who do pursue reaccreditation, many struggle and even fail the survey due to the demanding nature of the process and the limited resources available. Sadly, I have also observed team members responsible for accreditation tasks seeking new opportunities when faced with such challenges.
How do I prepare for URAC reaccreditation?
Preparing for reaccreditation can be daunting, but with the right strategies and resources you can navigate this process with confidence and success. After working with hundreds of organizations like yours, here are my top 4 recommendations for repositioning your organization with compliance and URAC accreditation standards in mind:
Perform a GAP analysis.
Take the time to perform a GAP or risk analysis of your URAC accreditation documents. This can be a tedious task, but the result is a clear picture of how much time, labor, and money sits between where your organization is now and where you want to be.
One of the most common issues I've seen in URAC accreditation survey findings is missing HR files. By doing a quick audit of your HR files you can make sure important documentation like primary source verifications, signed job descriptions, and employee reviews are available.
We also recommend reviewing:
- Policies and procedures. It’s always important to make sure they have been reviewed and approved since your last survey.
- Cold chain and room temperature shipping validations.
- Regular and annual documentation for accreditation requirements such as Quality Management Committee Meetings
Create an action plan for every gap.
Once you pinpoint any gaps, it's important to develop and document a corrective plan for each one. Documenting these plans, along with tracking their implementation progress, is key to ensuring your organization aligns fully with URAC standards. You should also integrate the corrective action plan into your Quality Management Committee's responsibilities to maintain compliance oversight and ensure ongoing adherence to the plan.
Attend a URAC workshop to stay ahead of accreditation trends.
URAC is an incredible organization that regularly offers educational sessions and webinars where you can learn more about the current URAC standards. You can also attend industry workshops and presentations on accreditation to get updates and trends for accreditation. When it is time for URAC reaccreditation, you will have to be compliant with the most current version of URAC standards before you submit your reaccreditation Accreditnet application. I have attended many of these sessions myself and highly recommend them to anyone preparing for reaccreditation.
You can check out their upcoming events here.
Get support for the gaps that are too challenging.
For as long as URAC has been around, people have been working to learn about and streamline the accreditation processes. That said, if a gap in URAC accreditation compliance is too challenging, there is sure to be a solution that is a good fit for your organization.
There are two primary forms of support I recommend looking into:
- Accreditation Consulting can be a powerful resource. There are plenty of individuals and organizations with extensive experience who can support you with even the most unique barriers. For example, the accreditation team at D2 Solutions is a team of former pharmacists and healthcare leaders, so not only have we helped our partners with accreditation compliance, we’ve tackled it ourselves.
- Accreditation Management Technology solutions exist to help manage and streamline accreditation tasks. Ideally, these are simple to implement and make sure all of your hard work is organized and audit-ready. AccredComply, D2’s proprietary accreditation management technology, was designed to do just that and, in turn, has helped 100% of our partners successfully achieve their accreditation or reaccreditation since 2018.
Summary: Steps to Maintaining Your URAC Accreditation
You're dedicated to patients; we're dedicated to you.
As a team of former pharmacists and healthcare leaders, our mission at D2 Solutions is to help you increase efficiency, minimize risk, and drive access so you can focus on what matters most: providing the best care to your patients. We have spent over a decade developing the consulting and technology solutions we wish we’d had access to when we faced hurdles of regulatory compliance, license tracking, managing URAC accreditation, etc.
Let us know what challenges your organization is facing, we're here to help you bridge the gap and deliver better across your organization.
