SPECIALIZED HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF URAC ACCREDITATION

SAN DIEGO,CA (November 4, 1998)-- The American Accreditation HealthCare Commission/URAC is seeing an increasing number of applications from specialized health care networks. This indicates not only an appreciation by specialized care organizations of the importance of accreditation but also recognition of the fact that URAC standards can be applied to them.

Garry Carneal, president and CEO of URAC says, “We are seeing applications from a variety of specialized organizations, including chiropractic, acupuncture, skilled nursing, workers’ compensation, home care, provider hospital and radiology organizations. We are pleased that these organizations see the importance of being measured by URAC’s national benchmarks.”

An example of this trend was seen on October 28, 1998 when American Specialty Health Plans was issued accreditation for its chiropractic and acupuncture HMO, PPO and workers’ compensation networks. “An increasing number of employers and consumers are looking at accreditation as an external ‘seal of approval’ of their health plan’s operations. It is an important means of distinguishing quality health plans in the market,” said R. Douglas Metz, D.C., American Specialty’s vice president of health services.

Fred Ferree, URAC chairperson, said, “As an increasing number of Americans choose from diverse healthcare options it is essential that standards are available to ensure the quality of the care they select. URAC standards have demonstrated that they accommodate the variety of managed care programs in the market.”

Statistics indicate that Americans are increasingly partaking of a variety of healthcare options. For example, according to “Dynamic Chiropractic” the number of chiropractors in the United States has grown from 13,000 in 1970 to approximately 50,000 in 1994. The number of chiropractic visits has doubled in the past 15 to 20 years. The American Association of Oriental Medicine reports that 12 million Americans received acupuncture treatment and that the number of persons seeking acupuncture treatment is increasing substantially every year. On September 18, 1998 the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention released a random, nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 Americans, which found that 69% of them had used “some form of complementary and/or alternative medicine in the past year”.

George DeVries, American Specialty Health Plans president and CEO, noted the importance of accreditation when he said, “We have always wanted to go through the accreditation process because of the confidence we have in our systems, processes and staff. Our accreditation demonstrates that we comply with a widely-accepted national standard for quality and accountability.”

"We are honored to join the more than 250 health plans and managed care organizations nationwide that have achieved URAC accreditation. It is especially exciting to receive not one, but seven accreditations from URAC,” said DeVries.

The American Accreditation HealthCare Commission/URAC is a not-for-profit entity founded in 1990 to establish accreditation standards for managed health care organizations. The Commission/URAC’s broad-based membership URAC represents a diversity of health care constituencies: industry, provider, purchasers, consumers, and regulators. Purchasers and consumers look to Commission/URAC accreditation as a mark of distinction for a managed health care company. For additional information about URAC visit our website at: http://www.urac.org