The National Health Insurance Company – Daman today announced receiving of provisional accreditation from URAC, a Washington DC, USA-based health care accrediting organization, bringing closer towards its landmark E-prescription service.

The URAC establishes quality standards for the health care industry, for its Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) system which forms the backbone for e-prescriptions services.

A full accreditation is required by the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD) for all health insurers before PBM is fully implemented later this year. The URAC accreditation process demonstrates a commitment to quality services and serves as a framework to improve business processes through benchmarking organizations against recognized standards.

Commenting on the provisional accreditation, Dr. Michael Bitzer, Daman’s Chief Executive Officer said: ‘Since 2006, Daman has introduced, and developed, processes and procedures that meet the highest international quality standards. This is a reflection of our continued commitment towards being a reliable partner to members and network of medical service providers.’

The PBM initiative, aims to have all pharmacies within Abu Dhabi seek an automated pre-approval from insurers on prescribed medication using Shafafiya – HAAD’s dedicated transaction platform for healthcare operators and insurers. HAAD has mandated that all health insurers in Abu Dhabi are required to implement PBM in 2012.

URAC accreditation requires applicants to submit policies, procedures and other organizational information to URAC followed by an onsite review. Following the onsite review, URAC will determine an organization’s eligibility for full accreditation.

Daman’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jad Aoun commented: ‘We are pleased to have received the provisional accreditation from URAC and we will work diligently to implement all the processes and procedures to meet the necessary requirements for a full accreditation. We will continue with testing our back-end systems to ensure a smooth rollout of PBM and e-prescription services later this year.’

Earlier in 2012, Daman has announced its plans to introduce E-prescription services in addition to the mandatory PBM system. E-prescriptions allow checks by the automated system against harmful drug interactions and possible overdosing, provided that the member’s prescription history is available with Daman. Medical service providers will also benefit from faster processing of insurance claims, as these transactions are pre-approved through the automated system.