URAC Seeks Public Comment on Standards for Disease Management Accreditation

Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 12, 2011

URAC, a leading health care accreditation and education organization, today opened a call for public comment to share input and opinions on proposed revised and new standards for its Disease Management Accreditation program. Purchasers, policy makers, consumers, health care management organizations, employers, and health plans are encouraged to provide their comments on the proposed URAC standards at http://www.urac.org/publiccomment/. The deadline for public comment is 6:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, September 23, 2011.

“URAC’s Disease Management program works to equip all types of organizations that provide services for individuals with chronic illness with the tools they need to better assess and respond to the needs of consumers,” said Alan P. Spielman, president and CEO of URAC. The revised and new disease management standards reflect the growing trends in the changing disease management industry.”

URAC’s process for the review, development and selection of standards is done collaboratively with multiple stakeholders working through a multi-stage process that includes public comment. The URAC Disease Management Focus and Advisory Groups, and Health Standards Committee have been actively engaged in the process of revising the current standards and developing new ones.

The standards open for comment are categorized in the following domains:

    Disease Management (DM) Program Scope and Objectives
    Disease Management (DM) Staffing
    Disease Management (DM) Performance Reporting
    Consumer Rights and Responsibilities
    Evaluating Eligible Populations
    Disease Management (DM) Program Design

The current standards were carefully reviewed and revised to best reflect recent trends within the disease management industry, in particular concepts related to managing multiple chronic conditions, increased patient activation and engagement, increased family and caregiver support, increased care coordination and processes for transitions of care – including working with the patient centered health care home (i.e., medical home), as well as the inclusion of process and health outcomes reporting.

Another major change to these standards is the requirement to report on specific cross-cutting and disease-specific performance measures, which will be released near the end of August under a separate public comment period.

For more information, please contact URAC’s Senior Manager for Product Development, Terri Moore, at (202) 326-3950 or email at tmoore(at)urac(dot)org.

About URAC

URAC, an independent, nonprofit organization, is well-known as a leader in promoting health care quality through its accreditation, education and measurement programs. URAC offers a wide range of quality benchmarking programs and services that keep pace with the rapid changes in the health care system, and provide a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. Through its broad-based governance structure and an inclusive standards development process, URAC ensures that all stakeholders are represented in establishing meaningful quality measures for the entire health care industry. For more information, visit http://www.urac.org.

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