MCO accreditor to certify quality of health web sites
The American Accreditation Healthcare/Com-mission (URAC), a nonprofit organization formed in 1990 to develop standards for the managed care industry, will turn its attention to accrediting health web sites in a new collaboration with Health Internet Ethics (Hi-Ethics) Inc. Hi-Ethics is a cooperative group of Internet health sites and content providers. Member sites include: adam.com, allHealth.com/iVillage, LaurusHealth.com, Medscape, PersonalMD, WebMD, VeritasMedicine, and WellMed.
In May of 2000, Hi-Ethics released a set of 14 guiding principles to ensure their web sites adhered to consumer-friendly, ethically sound policies and procedures. The stated goals of the principles are to ensure health sites:
- provide Internet health services that reflect high-quality and ethical standards;
- provide health information that is trustworthy and up to date;
- keep personal information private and secure;
- employ special precautions for any personal health information;
- empower consumers to distinguish on-line health services that follow their principles from those that do not.
URAC will now incorporate these principles into its Health Web Site Accreditation Program, and will verify a site’s adherence to these principles. (For a complete list of the 14 guiding principles, see the Hi-Ethics web site at www.hiethics.org). Click on "Principles" on the guide at the left.)
"The Internet provides a unique opportunity to empower consumers to make choices based on quality," says Garry Carneal, president and CEO of URAC. "Accreditation will provide an important tool to assist consumers trying to distinguish between health web sites."
Consumers need trustworthy information
It’s important that consumers are able to have independent verification that health information they obtain on a web site is trustworthy, says Donald W. Kemper, chairman of Hi-Ethics and CEO of Healthwise Inc. "By combining the efforts of these two health Internet quality leaders, the URAC Health Web Site Accreditation program becomes the best and clearest pathway for health web sites to demonstrate their compliance with ethical standards."
Organizations who wish to join Hi-Ethics must meet the following criteria. The criteria help assure that Hi-Ethics can successfully meet its objectives. The organization must:
— currently operate a health web site or have plans (committed to writing) to be in operation within 120 days;
— be a health web site that is intended for use by consumers or develops health-related content or services for use by consumers. Health web sites that are exclusively business-to-business are ineligible for membership in Hi-Ethics at this time;
— be a U.S.-based health web site;
— intend to comply with the Hi-Ethics principles within four months of being accepted as a member. The organization must also be willing to participate in the e-Health Seal program administered by TRUSTe. For an organization to maintain its membership in Hi-Ethics, it must be in compliance with the e-Health Seal requirements;
• Pay a $20,000 annual membership fee, payable quarterly, and $5,000 for the first quarter is due with the letter of application and will be deposited upon acceptance of the application. (Organizations joining after the first quarter still are responsible for the full annual fee and must submit an initial application check for the quarters to date.)
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