The accrediting agency for healthcare organizations such as Amwell, Optum and Johns Hopkins Medicine has added a health equity program to distinguish companies laying the groundwork to eliminate health disparities.
URAC, a quality and safety nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that accredits more than 1,000 organizations including pharmacies, payers and providers, developed the program with the National Minority Quality Forum and groups such as the American Hospital Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the Alliance for Aging Research and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
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The health equity accreditation will add to the growing marketplace of honorary programs meant to standardize operations to eliminate health disparities and recognize healthcare organizations advancing that work. As the Health and Human Services Department pushes health equity as a strategic priority, accrediting agencies contracted with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been pushing companies to begin making changes.
URAC's program will recognize companies with a strategy to reduce health disparities in their communities, said President Dr. Shawn Griffin. The accreditation was built around the CMS Framework for Health Equity published last year and will help companies prepare for future regulations focused on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services, he said.
Companies seeking the optional accreditation must satisfy standards that involve understanding the disparities within their individual communities and developing a strategy to eliminate them. That plan should include integrating equity principles into operations such as quality and safety programs and workforce development, Griffin said.
"There's not a one-size-fits-all definition for health equity. We really look for an organization to be assessing their community and taking a look at what is the baseline," he said. "Working on health equity is very different for a pharmacy in rural Maine versus a multinational corporation in Phoenix or a health plan in Tallahassee."
URAC also will assess organizations' internal policies and procedures relative to their peers. For example, Griffin said the depth of language services will be looked at, along with the ability to promote health literacy among patients and whether an internal complaint pipeline exists for individuals to report inequitable practices.
The review process to earn accreditation will take six months and includes an external audit of health equity plans and performance.
Other accrediting agencies, such as The Joint Commission and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, have also launched health equity accreditation programs in the past year to standardize data collection, strategy and leadership operations. Griffin said URAC's program is different because it was built by a broad range of stakeholders and industries.
"If you take a look at the other programs that are out there, if you look at who was part of building that program, it tends to be a smaller group, and they don't have necessarily the background in this area," he said. "We all have our different ways of doing things, but we also recognize that, from our perspective, health equity is across the entire healthcare marketplace. It's not just limited to hospitals. It's not limited to health plans."
Griffin said the program will help guide future standards from HHS. For example, the federal agency has published guidance and is encouraging organizations to adopt culturally and linguistically appropriate services as part of a broader effort to eliminate health disparities.
