Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education

Requirements designed to ensure that accredited continuing education serves the needs of patients and the public, is based on valid content, and is free from commercial influence. The Standards comprise five standards: Ensure Content is Valid; Prevent Commercial Bias and Marketing in Accredited Continuing Education; Identify, Mitigate, and Disclose Relevant Financial Relationships; Manage Commercial Support Appropriately; Manage Ancillary Activities Offered in Conjunction with Accredited Continuing Education. Released in December 2020, the Standards for Integrity and Independence replace the Standards for Commercial Support. The Standards have been adopted by Joint Accreditation and the co-founders of Joint Accreditation (ACCME, ACPE, and ANCC), as well as other accrediting bodies in the health professions.

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Annual Reporting Information and Resources

Joint Accreditation uses the information collected in JA-PARS to support reviews that are part of the process for reaccreditation and progress report reviews. In addition, Joint Accreditation uses data from JA-PARS to produce reports as a service to jointly accredited providers and other stakeholders.

To fulfill your annual reporting requirement, there are five steps to complete:
  1. Accept the terms for the Joint Accreditation annual agreement, located on the dashboard in JA-PARS under the “Agreement” page. Each year, all jointly accredited providers are asked to accept the annual agreement regarding data submission and compliance with Joint Accreditation policies and procedures.
  2. Enter and close all activities that ended in 2022. For non-enduring material activity formats, providers are encouraged to enter activities that started in 2022 and are remaining active into 2023.
  3. Enter all enduring material activities that occurred in 2022, if you have not already. For those that are continuing into the next year, update the total learner counts as of December 31, 2022. Enduring materials should remain open until the end date, which may be up to three years from the start date. Once you have entered the enduring material, you will only need to update learner counts each year thereafter.
  4. Complete and submit your program summary, located on the dashboard in JA-PARS.
  5. Review and update your contact information. You can do this by clicking “Back to Accreditation Management” in the top right section of the JA-PARS dashboard.

Questions? We’re happy to help. Please contact  [email protected].

Resources

Probation is given to jointly acredited providers that have serious problems meeting the Joint Accreditation requirements. Providers on Probation are required to submit progress reports. Jointly accredited providers may have their status changed to Probation if their progress reports do not demonstrate correction of noncompliance issues. Most providers on Probation implement improvements quickly, return to a status of Joint Accreditation, and sustain compliance. Providers cannot remain on Probation for longer than two years.

Providers that successfully achieve Joint Accreditation with Commendation may be awarded a six-year accreditation term. The six-year term will be available only to providers that achieve Commendation; providers that demonstrate compliance with JAC 1–12, but do not demonstrate compliance with the commendation criteria, will receive a four-year term. Organizations are eligible to seek Joint Accreditation with Commendation if they are currently jointly accredited or they are seeking initial joint accreditation and have been previously accredited by at least one of the following: ACCME, ACPE, or ANCC.