URAC launches accreditation for community health worker programs

URAC, an independent quality and safety nonprofit, will accredit organizations that employ or contract with community health workers in an attempt to standardize their roles across the industry.

The accreditation program, unveiled Wednesday, will be available to any entity with a community health worker program, including health systems, state and local governments, public health departments, insurers and community-based groups. Around 58,500 community health workers were employed as of May 2023, and this number is expected to grow 14% by 2032, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Community health workers have played an increasingly important part in local healthcare delivery in recent years, helping to reduce care barriers and costs while supporting the work of clinicians, said Dr. Shawn Griffin, president and CEO of URAC.

The growing number of community health workers coupled with the rise in coverage of their services are the main drivers behind URAC’s decision to create a new accreditation, Griffin said. 

In January, Medicare began reimbursing community health workers for conducting social determinants of health assessments and providing services for health system navigation and care education. Nearly 30 states pay community health workers through Medicaid for services including health coaching, patient advocacy and community outreach, according to 2022 data from KFF.

Federal investment in policies related to community health workers has increased, especially following the pandemic, said Caroline Brazeel, senior director of population health and innovation at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

The American Rescue Plan in 2022 awarded $225 million to train more than 13,000 community health workers, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 authorized annual grants of $50 million for health systems to hire and retain more community health workers through fiscal year 2027.

To earn URAC’s new accreditation, organizations will have to meet dozens of standards around community health worker supervision, workload, professional development, scope of practice, performance evaluations, training and competencies.

Organizations should ensure they are paying livable wages, actively preventing burnout and considering diversity when hiring community health workers, Griffin said.

The accreditation standards — informed by an advisory panel of community health workers and representatives from federally qualified health centers, community-based organizations, educational institutions and payers — are intended to complement existing certification programs for individual community health workers, he said.

“We're not in conflict with individual certification or things that some states are doing,” Griffin said. “We felt like having community health worker programs be built correctly was the most important thing that we could do for standardizing this across the country.”

Eleven states have their own community health worker certification programs, six states have programs run by independent credentialing boards, and another six states have programs run through a community health worker association, according to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

As URAC’s program grows, the organization plans to partner with state organizations and hire community health workers to review accreditation applications and garner information on best practices to guide improvement and alignment on various standards, Griffin said.

Health systems will likely continue to integrate community health workers due to their ability to identify challenges with care navigation and access, as well as their contributions to creating more coordinated and responsive care delivery, Brazeel said.