Public Comment Period Extended to May 1, 2023, on RESNET Proposed Amendment to Its Quality Assurance Standard to Make It More Efficient and Cost Effective While Maintaining It As the Gold Standard To ensure adequate public review and commenting on the proposed Proposed Addendum 72, RESNET has extended the deadline for submitting comments to May 1, 2023. The RESNET Standards are seen as the gold standard of quality assurance in the industry. RESNET continues to make significant efforts to improve these rigorous standards while also striving to make improvements to better help the industry by leveling the playing field and streamlining processes for providers and QADs. The existing requirements for 10% file Quality Assurance (QA) reviews and 1% field QA reviews have been a requirement of the RESNET Standards since 2004. While the percentages seem fair and are easy to calculate per individual, it is time for those values to be re-evaluated. In today’s competitive marketplace, we must consider the significant overhead required and the current challenges in staffing for Providers to be able to meet these QA percentage requirements. The purpose of field and file QA reviews are to ensure that HERS® Raters, RFIs, and HERS Modelers are properly conducting field verifications, inspections and field testing, and accurately modeling ratings in software. Individuals that have been properly conducting field inspections and testing and accurately modeling ratings may not need as much oversight as individuals who are newly certified or who have not demonstrated the expected level of quality and consistency. One of the goals of this proposed amendment is to make a programmatic change to the RESNET QA system so that individuals receive supervision by QADs as needed in order to help the overall accuracy and consistency of ratings. Providers and QADs need to be able to choose where more QA reviews are needed and where less may be necessary. In addition, re-evaluating the percentages of QA reviews needed based on confidence levels will allow providers to potentially reduce the overall number of QA reviews required. This will reduce the administrative burden on Providers and QADs while continuing to maintain the RESNET Standards as the gold standards for QA. Proposed Addendum 72 amends chapter 9 of the RESNET MINHERS to change the requirements for file and field QA. The existing requirements for 10% file QA reviews and 1% field QA reviews are revised in a way that will allow Providers to potentially reduce the overall number of QA reviews required. The proposed changes are intended to reduce the administrative burden on providers and QADs while continuing to maintain the RESNET Standards as the gold standards for QA. The draft addendum, comment form, and comments received are posted at Draft PDS-01, MINHERS Addendum 72, File and Field QA. Public comments will be accepted through May 1, 2023.
