URAC -- Compliance with State and Federal Law

What happens when accreditation standards are different that state or federal laws?

It depends on whether the law is more rigorous than the URAC standard. If the law or regulation is tougher on the applicant than the standard, comply with the law. If the accreditation standard is tougher, comply with the standard.

If the law or regulation prohibits the applicant from following URAC's standard, you'll need to apply for a regulatory variance in your application. To do this, you must submit a copy of the law or regulation and any other information that would be helpful to communicate to the URAC reviewer that to comply with URAC would violate the law.

What will not fly is the preference of the applicant's lawyer. I was once told by an applicant that its general counsel had advised the company not to provide providers with the dispute resolution rights required by URAC's Health Network standards. When I spoke to the general counsel, he explained that state law didn't prohibit the giving of such rights, only that the giving of dispute resolution rights might give rise to litigation. This is not grounds for a variance, only for a good chuckle.