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3 easy steps to begin your URAC accreditation
Overview
Obtaining URAC’s Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Certification signals to patients and payers that you have invested in the infrastructure, health information technology, staffing and most importantly, the necessary shift in practice culture, to transform how primary care is organized and delivered.
The URAC Difference
Unlike organizations that simply validate what the physician practice already does, URAC’s unique three-tiered approach to PCMH certification guides your practice through a series of shared learning experiences. Our step-by-step progression helps you identify the best methods for providing value-based, quality care over time to better sustain long term transformation.
Understanding the value of integrated care, URAC also incorporates behavioral health components into our PCMH standards and patient measures.
Benefits of Certification
With URAC Certification, you are working toward real change to achieve tangible clinical and financial outcomes. You are also better positioned for successful clinical integration, quality care delivery and ultimately, value-based payment.
Our Certification is a true differentiator among your competitors, enabling you to:
- Cite a high standard of excellence and quality patient care that differentiates your organization as an advanced practice
- Indicate you have adopted innovative health information technologies and evidence-based medical approaches that enhance the patient experience
- Achieve qualification for favorable payments under the MACRA Quality Payment Program as early as possible
What to Expect
Officially recognized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, our PCMH Certification was initially developed to conform with the guidelines jointly created by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians and American Osteopathic Association.
URAC conducts and assessment of your PCMH approach. While our experts define the standards of excellence for patient-centered care, they do not prescribe how your practice should meet those standards, which provide a flexible framework for continuous improvement. The certification process takes less than six months.
URAC’s approach stimulates innovation across the continuum of care through email, conference calls and educational webinars.
We award PCMH accreditation for a full three years and require annual reporting of quality measures. Download our Patient-Centered Medical Home Standards-at-a-Glance and Measures-at-a-Glance for more information.
Who May Apply
Legally organized health care practices that provide primary care to patients in office-based settings, outpatient clinics or academic-affiliated ambulatory clinics.