Why Aren’t More Hospitals and Facilities Using the Credentialing by Proxy Process?
Credentialing by Proxy, or the Delegated Credentialing Agreement, is a simplified means for getting hospitals the physicians and practitioners they need to support their patient care. It eliminates the burdensome, and time-consuming, primary source verification process and replaces it with a streamlined process that can get new doctors through your doors in as little as two weeks. For a full report on the benefits of Credentialing by Proxy, check out our article.
Often, there’s an urgent need to credential additional physicians to help improve patient care. However, even with the Credentialing by Proxy process being offered to expedite getting telemedicine-based physicians and practitioners through your doors, some facilities have been hesitant to utilize this agreement. In a 2017 Telemedicine & Digital Health Survey Report conducted by Foley & Lardner, only a third of respondent hospitals or provider groups used telemedicine credentialing by proxy (Foley & Lardner 2017).
Regardless of whether a hospital utilizes CMS or Joint Commission standards for their credentialing (both of which accept credentialing by proxy) a hospital may choose not to take this quicker route.
This may be due to several factors.
Afraid of the “Risks”
“How can we just not have primary source verification be our process anymore?” is a question we often hear, followed by:
“What about our state-specific or hospital-specific credentialing criteria?”
Or:
“We’ve been burnt in the past by [insert other radiology company]. What about the risks that come with a speedier credentialing process?”
And, of course:
“But, our bylaws won’t allow for it.”
We’ll get to this last one in a moment.
But, to address this fear of the unknown, facilities can be assured that standards will meet or exceed those of the Joint Commission. Meaning, they no longer need to go through their own checklist for verification, they simply receive a file (how much documentation needed varies by hospital – this is a flexible process) that they can present to their credentialing committee.
Since we are accredited by the Joint Commission, we are being audited and have to be in good standing with the commission and uphold their standards for every doctor that we hire. Each year we are evaluated and receive a positive review, so you can be assured that every doctor that goes through the credentialing by proxy process will provide the best care for your patients.
Big Bad Bylaws
We can list the benefits of credentialing by proxy all day long, but if a hospital’s internal bylaws won’t allow for this kind of agreement then they feel their hands are tied and they cannot utilize this process.
However, this doesn’t have to be the end of the road.
We offer a proven, note-efficient, process for amending your bylaws to allow Credentialing by Proxy. This is just another way our clients and Real Radiology help deliver patient care excellence.
We provide suggested wording that can be added to the bylaws so that your hospital is free to do delegated credentialing. This wording is entirely based on the specific hospital or facility, but it’s a great starting point.
Edit it, change it, mold it to fit the language of your organization and how your laws are written. Then, take these proposed changes to your credentialing committee and your board to have your bylaws changed to adopt a delegated credentialing agreement. Bylaws can be malleable and updating them to allow for credentialing by proxy will, in the end, be worth it.