Three out of four consumers report that accreditation will increase their trust in searching health web sites. More importantly, 98% of consumers believe that assessment of the quality of information is very important and 95% want accreditation to examine whether health information is timely and understandable.
In a response to this need, the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC), as part of the American Accreditation Healthcare Commission, has released a 15-page manual with 53 specific standards and explanations of requirements for accrediting health web sites. The standards are designed to embody ethical principles of conduct for consumer-oriented web sites, as well as ensuring accountability and quality of site content.
The standards are broken down into eight categories:
- Disclosure
- Health Content and Service Delivery
- Linking
- Privacy
- Security
- Accountability
- Policies and Procedures
- Quality Oversight Committee
Accreditation is a three-month process that involves the submission of an application that documents how a web site complies with the URAC standards. Followed by a visit from a URAC reviewer to the site operations to interview web staff and observe aspects of the web site operation. The process also includes a consumer feedback evaluation that will help to measure whether a web site's information and disclosures are understandable.
The process of accreditation is also an expensive endeavor. The base application is $5,000, followed by a $2,000 onsite fee (not including travel expenses), and an audit fee that can cost $2,500. URAC realizes that the fees will act as a barrier for smaller websites. URAC is exploring a "sliding scale" fee to encourage any web site to apply for accreditation.
This accreditation process will help to identify the best consumer health web sites, but it remains to be seen how many web sites will be able to afford the process and the overall acceptance of the standards.
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