Why Medical Credentialing Is Valuable To Your Practice
Medical credentialing is sometimes referred to as the backbone of the medical and healthcare industry. It is the process that embarks the trust of patients and other people in a medical organization and the physicians specifically.
Medical credentialing is a process that ensures that the hired physicians, nurses, and other paramedical staff are trained properly and additionally certified as well to work and give proper healthcare to the patients. This is the process by which high standards of medical healthcare are maintained.
Medical credentialing services providing companies ensure that the healthcare organization is well reputed both in terms of medical staff as well as the monetary side.
If we check out the monetary perspective, it will not be a shocker to know that usually the medical organizations which do not go through the process of medical credentialing cannot get reimbursed for their services from the insuring bodies working under the management of Medicare/Medicaid.
Now that it is established how important medical credentialing is, let’s find out why it is so important for any physician’s practice.
Importance of Medical credentialing
The dictionary meaning of medical credentialing is “Medical credentialing is increasingly important because it is the one procedure that allows patients to confidently place their trust in their chosen healthcare providers.”
Credentialing process determines the worth of physicians and nurses and confirmed their experience and training in the relevant field therefore it is very necessary for health organizations to understand what actually is medical credentialing and how important it is for the organization. Here are some of the most important reasons to understand the worth of this process for any medical and healthcare organization.
- Increases credibility of the medical practice
If an organization undergoes a medical credentialing process, then this automatically boosts the trust level among the patients regarding the physicians and other medical staff associated with the practice.
The patients will trust the physicians with their prescribed medication as well as any kind of changes in their diet or requesting them any certain kind of exercise to improve their health.
This is the confidence that patients get when they are aware that their physician has undergone the medical credentialing process and is competent and trained enough to practice and treat them for their illness.
Medical credentialing also appeals to other employees to join the organization as this way they know they can work with the best in the field and want to learn from them.
- Establishes professionalism
Medical credentialing services providing companies work with efficiency to make sure that healthcare is looked upon with prestige and professionalism. Medical credentialing is a lengthy process and to make sure the credentials are accurate you need to showcase your bona fides to the patients.
As credentialing is done, “through a standardized process involving data collection, primary source verification, and committee review by health plans, hospitals, and other healthcare agencies, patients are assured of their healthcare professional’s merit and experience.”
HIPAA can perform audits at any time and if you want to pass the scrutiny then medical credentialing is the perfect option.
If an organization has staff that undergoes a rigorous process of medical credentialing before hiring, then this improves the professionalism among the staff members as well as records the medical practice as a credible one in the market.
- Cuts down medical errors
The medical credentialing process ensures that all the healthcare professionals attached to the organization are credible and have valued experience and training to perform medical treatment and procedures on patients.
Once this is established, it means that medical errors will be reduced to a certain extent. According to a recent survey, almost 98000 people in America die each year because of medical errors. This number can be further reduced if the credentialing process is spread across the states of America and is done by acclaimed medical credentialing services providing companies so that it is confirmed whether the doctors and nurses are credible enough for the job or not.
- Compensation by insurance companies
If a healthcare organization is medically credentialed only then it can demand reimbursement from the insurer. This is another reason which increases the worth of this process.
A lot of medical insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare would ask to check the medical credentialed documents first before allowing the medical staff of the said organization to get engaged with the patients and provide their services and procedures.
- Creates new openings
The medical credentialing process fills up the vacant position paving way for the organization to hire accredited people and resources who are completely trained and have ample amount of experience to serve in the said position.
The human resource department tracks the status of the medical credentialing process of all the eligible candidates to find out any kind of problem or ambiguity in their application and can rectify it there and then. If a certain candidate is not up to the mark, then the organization can move the next eligible candidate and get the hiring process completed.
Final thoughts
Medical credentialing is a process that involves a series of actions, reviews, and a lot of documentation. It is a lengthy process but it is worthwhile. The process can be a bit tedious sometimes but it increases the efficiency and efficacy of the organization and ensures that the position of the organization becomes more credible in the market with the hiring of competent resources that are eligible to work because of extensive experience, and training and education.
Medical credentialing has boosted the healthcare industry. It has helped in evolving the industry by eliminating errors, and inefficiencies and making all these new techniques affordable for almost everyone by reducing the labor cost.
This process has ensured peace of mind among the patients and also protects medical practices from enduring financial crises.
