URAC Announces New Accreditation for Community Pharmacies

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

CVS/pharmacy First to Seek Community Pharmacy Accreditation

 Washington, DC, May 6, 2014 ― URAC, a leader in promoting healthcare quality, has announced the launch of its new accreditation program, Community Pharmacy. As healthcare reform reshapes the healthcare industry, demand is increasing for quality improvement programs and quality outcomes in the marketplace.

CVS/pharmacy is the first applicant organization to seek community pharmacy accreditation from URAC. CVS/pharmacy is the retail division of CVS Caremark, which is already accredited for 4 out of the now 6 URAC’s pharmacy accreditation programs: Pharmacy Benefit Management, Drug Therapy Management, Specialty Pharmacy, and Mail Service Pharmacy.

“CVS Caremark has demonstrated its commitment to quality by being early adopters of URAC’s pharmacy accreditation programs and we are pleased to announce that CVS/pharmacy is the first to seek accreditation as a community pharmacy,” said Kylanne Green, URAC’s chief executive officer.

To earn the accreditation, providers undergo an independent rigorous evaluation process, ensuring the achievement of accountability and quality under industry-vetted standards.

“We are pleased to be the first retail pharmacy seeking URAC’s new Community Pharmacy Accreditation,” said Josh Flum, senior vice president of retail pharmacy at CVS Caremark. “Independently validating the quality of CVS/pharmacy’s patient services through the same accreditation process that CVS Caremark’s other pharmacy businesses have undergone demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers on their path to better health.”

URAC’s Community Pharmacy Accreditation Program was developed in response to the market need to differentiate community pharmacies that engage in patient counseling and education, medication therapy management and quality initiatives that improve care and reduce overall health care costs.

About Community Pharmacy Accreditation

URAC’s Community Pharmacy Accreditation program validates the quality of patient management services provided by community pharmacies. URAC accreditation substantiates that the structure and processes are in place to provide effective integrated, patient centered, accountable care. URAC accreditation offers independent third-party recognition and support for community pharmacies, highlighting excellence and quality in single- and multi-site pharmacies.

URAC’s Community Pharmacy Accreditation program:

• Recognizes community pharmacies that engage in patient counseling and education, medication therapy management and quality initiatives that improve care and reduce overall healthcare costs.
• Seeks to improve quality, efficiency, patient safety and outcomes, while contributing to lower healthcare costs.

Community Pharmacies are generally defined as any single- or multi-site pharmacy organization that dispenses prescription medications and provides patient centered medication management, wellness services, and preventative and chronic disease management services.

For more information, please contact Brooke Kane at bkane@urac.org.

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 ABOUT URAC

URAC is a national accreditation leader, offering over 30 highly regarded accreditation programs that span the healthcare spectrum. Our programs are created and updated by independent industry-spanning experts to address the latest market trends and needs, offering a wide range of accreditation and benchmarking programs and providing a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. URAC is recognized as the accrediting body for various aspects of pharmacy practice with six Pharmacy Quality Management (PQM) programs: Community Pharmacy Accreditation; Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation; Mail Service Pharmacy Accreditation; Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) Accreditation; Drug Therapy Management (DTM) Accreditation and Workers’ Compensation PBM Accreditation. URAC’s accreditation programs are formally recognized by six federal agencies, as well as 48 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit www.urac.org, follow us on Twitter, or visit our page on LinkedIn.

Does another “metric” really being better patient care.. or just another distraction that will contribute to more med errors and harm to patients ?