URAC Core 13(d) -- Information Management -- Storage, Maintenance, and Destruction

Core 13(d) provides:

The organization implements information system(s) (electronic, paper or both) to collect, maintain, and analyze information necessary for organizational management that . . . (d) Includes a plan for storage, maintenance, and destruction.

This is a primary element of a mandatory standard, and is a bit tricky if you are not paying attention. The most straightforward aspect of the subsection is expressed in this paragraph of the “Points to Remember”:

A plan for storage, maintenance, and destruction would include where information would be stored, how it could be retrieved, who is responsible for stored information, who could have access or approves access, how long information would be maintained before it is destroyed (if it is ever to be destroyed), and how it would be destroyed.

The trickier, and more frequently missed understanding of the standard is in the very next paragraph of the program guide:

Note storage, maintenance and destruction of information applies to both electronic and paper documentation.

I guess that this is overlooked most frequently because compliance with Core 13 is usually turned over to the IT folks, who typically don’t pay an awful lot of attention to paper. URAC is very clear, though, not only in the Program Guide, but also in interpretation by its reviewers, that your policies and procedures must specifically address storage, maintenance, and destruction of print data, as well as electronic data.