Empowering Providers to ‘OWN’ their Credentialing Process

With all of the technological advances in healthcare, especially pertaining to the credentialing process, there is no longer a ‘need’ to handhold providers and assist them in completing their applications. Online applications, online review portals, and online survey modules have allowed the providers to play an active role in these processes, owning the responsibility.

So how do we, the credentialing professionals, step back and ‘cut the cord’? The easiest way to encourage provider engagement is by re-setting expectations with the implementation of a new process. Setting credentialing expectations is fairly simple, especially with initial applications as there is seldom pre-set expectations.

Reappointments, review processes, and survey expectations need more proactive communication to ensure successful adoption. The more communication and proactive retraining that is provided in advance, helps to streamline the implementation of these processes and guarantee success and provider adoption.

It is also essential to recognize that some providers may still need help fulfilling their credentialing obligations. In these instances, it is important not to ostracize these providers, but to provide them with assistance and additional resources as needed. Having resources such as supplemental documentation and support staff available to assist them until they are more comfortable have proven successful.

The most beneficial side effect of encouraging providers to own these tasks is that it truly eliminates all of the babysitting and chasing of documents, applications, and responses, freeing up your time to focus on that actual credentialing and processing of these tasks. As with our ever-changing industry, it is important to enforce new policies equally and allow a grace period to identify any areas for improvement and adoption.