The #1 Barrier Keeping Your Organization from Reaching Accreditation

[Download the PDF]

You’re ready to get URAC Accredited. So why are things moving forward so slowly? Why does it feel as if you’ll never have the documentation together in time?

Does this sound familiar? Sure, accreditation is a daunting task, but sometimes it seems nothing is getting accomplished.

So, what’s the #1 barrier keeping you from working toward that URAC deadline?

In my experience, resistance to collaboration is the number one barrier.

Having worked with many organizations, it’s not hard to see a pattern emerge: Staff are nervous and are afraid of what may be discovered. They most likely feel they’re under scrutiny and that their job may be at risk. Maybe they already know that some of their procedures are not in compliance with URAC standards.

Breaking News: This is not news! Not a single company I’ve worked with has been anywhere near 100% compliant with all URAC standards when I started working with them.

Want to save a lot of time and get kick the accreditation process off on the right foot?

Address the barriers immediately.

My advice is to talk to your staff; ensure them that this is a learning opportunity. Opportunities for improvement will be welcomed, not scrutinized. The accreditation process is not a performance evaluation, and it’s not out of the norm to have compliance issues. The key is to identify them before URAC does.

Arete Healthcare Solutions is here to help you identify those inconsistencies and work with your staff to improve processes--before you submit your documentation for URAC’s review and before the reviewers come onsite. It’s an opportunity to grow as an organization and as a team--and to mend any gaps in compliance.

Another part of the barrier is that most employees do not understand that accreditation is not only beneficial for the organization as a whole, but staff see the benefits of improved work flows, meaningful policies, applicable training, and improved quality outcomes.

Dissolve barriers by creating buy-in.

In order to dissolve the barriers, staff must understand the importance of their job: how what they do on a daily basis relates to the accreditation. This will help staff understand why they are being asked to do the work—and this is where you create the buy-in.

Use the examples below to emphasize the positive aspects of accreditation:

• Stand out from competitors: When businesses see that your organization is URAC Accredited, it is the gold standard of Quality and Excellence. It signifies that your company maintains the highest level of standards in the industry. Many organizations only contract with URAC-accredited vendors--and are more likely to contract with a URAC-accredited company.
• Improve internal operations: Regardless of the type of accreditation you’re seeking, URAC’s standards were designed to increase operational efficiencies, reduce business risks, and improve patient health outcomes. This is done by identifying and implementing a quality improvement methodology that works for your business model.
• Clarify and streamline processes: With clearly defined program descriptions, policies and procedures your company will ensure staff understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to their specific job function.
• Maintain compliance with applicable laws and regulations: Ensure compliance by developing ongoing internal monitoring, auditing and reporting to ensure consistent compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Maintain state accreditation requirements: Some states require organizations who conduct Health Utilization Management (HUM) or Worker’s Compensation Utilization Management (WCUM) to be URAC-accredited. Internal Review Organizations (IROs) performing external review must be URAC-accredited in certain states and Health Plans offering Health Insurance Exchange products must be URAC-accredited in all states.
• Support industry Best Practices: Many Best Practices are addressed in URAC’s standards and help you remain competitive in the industry.

Getting over the fear factor

Accreditation is a lot of work. It requires high organizational skills and working together as a team on each and every standard. It sometimes requires an expert consultant to guide you on all the requirements. Accreditation can be an overwhelming, daunting and rigorous task—but it doesn’t have to be scary.

At Arete Healthcare Solutions, we have a 100% accreditation success rate. That means URAC Accreditation is not only possible--it is a realistic goal that we can achieve together. We work with your team to accomplish accreditation requirements in a way that works for your organization.

For more information, contact us today or visit our website.

Email: aretehcsolutions@gmail.com

Phone: (951) 970-2573

Website: aretehealthcaresolutions.com