All Entries in the "credentialing" Category
Featured free webcast: ACOs influence on MSPs
By now, you’ve probably heard the acronym ACO a few times at your organization. Although there are still many questions, one thing is for sure: ACOs will create changes throughout the healthcare industry, including the medical staff office. For MSPs, what this most likely means is a change to how practitioners are credentialed.
Bruce D. Armon, Esq., a legal expert in corporate healthcare law, will present a free 30-minute webcast next week about the MSPs role in an ACO formation. Armon is managing partner of Saul Ewing LLP’s Philadelphia office and co-chair of its health law group. He is also a member of our panel of highly-respected experts presenting at the 15th Annual Credentialing Resource Center Symposium, May 10-11, in Orlando. For more information on the symposium, click here.
To sign up for this free webcast, call 781/639-5599 or click here.
Get creative, get 50% off price of CRC Symposium
One thing I’ve learned quickly in this role as credentialing editor is that MSPs love to share their great ideas with other MSPs. They know the stress their MSO faces and if they have a solution to a common medical staff problem, they don’t want to keep it a secret. With that said, HCPro wants to provide MSPs with a way to share their knowledge at the 15th annual Credentialing Resource Center Symposium. As part of the conference offerings, a poster session will be held; it’s an informal way for hospitals to share their medical staff office successes with each other, network, and exchange ideas and information.
Accepted poster presenters will receive a 50% discount off the price of two symposium admissions. Sorry, but those already registered for the symposium are not eligible for the 50% discount (but you could send someone else from your organization).
Any and all ideas are welcome. Some poster topics to consider include the following:
- How to train or incentivize medical staff leaders
- How to avoid negligent credentialing and malpractice claims
- How to conduct OPPE and FPPE
- How to develop a thorough and efficient credentialing processes
- How to develop privileging criteria and delineation of privileges
If you have a great idea for a poster and want to present it at this year’s conference, please download the attached CRC poster application, complete it, and e-mail it to kkondilis@hcpro.com. Thanks, and I look forward to receiving your application.
Featured webcast: Assessing the competence of low- and no-volume practitioners
Create strategic solutions to privileging low- and no-volume practitioners with advice from two leading medical staff and credentialing experts. In this online program, Yisrael M. Safeek, MD, MBA, CPE, FACPE, an experienced physician leader and former Joint Commission surveyor, and Sally Pelletier CPMSM, CPS, a national credentialing and privileging expert, walk medical staff leaders and medical services professionals through steps to develop a working strategy to establish competency for low- and no-volume practitioners.
Take a peek at the agenda:
- Contributing factors to the increase of low- and no-volume practitioners
- Governance documents that hamper the hospital’s ability to effectively manage low- and no-volume practitioners (i.e. link membership and privileges)
- How does low volume affect competence
- Matching privileges with competence
- Building a strategic approach to low- and no-volume practitioners (e.g. intended practice plan, medical staff development plan)
- Working strategies to address low- and no-volume
- A medical staff culture that feels an obligation to the low- and no-volume practitioners
- Types of data sources
- How to compile and present the data in a meaningful way
This webcast will be presented on Tuesday, February 21 at 1 p.m. To learn more or to register, click here.
A little play, a little work
Happy National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week! I hope you have had a chance to celebrate all of the hard work produced from your MSSD. This week is not just about celebrating though, it is also about teaching. This is your opportunity to show someone new (or remind someone a bit more seasoned) all of the great things that happen on a daily basis in your office. Practitioners and patients need to recognize that without the MSSD, their lives would be very different. How would practitioners prove they are competent and know how to provide quality care to patients? And how would patients get access to those exceptional practitioners?
Since this is your week, I have a suggestion: Take 10 minutes each day this week to explain your job to someone you have never explained it to before. Not sure what to say or how to condense your duties into a 10-minute conversation? Here is a cheat sheet from NAMSS. (For the quieter MSPs out there, print out a copy of the fact sheet and leave it on someone’s desk.)
MSPs:
- Are employed by hospitals, managed care organizations, group practices, and other healthcare settings across the United States
- Are experts in provider credentialing and privileging, medical staff organization, accreditation and regulatory compliance, and provider relations in the diverse healthcare industry.
- Credential and monitor the ongoing competence of the physician and other practitioners who provide patient care services in hospitals, managed care organizations, and other healthcare settings
- Attain certification in one or both of the following:
- Certified Professional in Medical Services Management (CPMSM). This certification is directed toward the broader responsibilities of MSPs and those who are charged with managing, improving, and implementing processes. Certification focuses on professionals who deal with governance, bylaws, medical executive committee responsibilities, and the overall compliance with internal policies and procedures as well as state, federal, and accreditation agencies.
- Certified Provider Credentialing Specialist (CPCS). The CPCS certification focuses on the responsibilities of credentialing specialists in various healthcare environments (i.e., hospitals, CVOs, PHOs, physician groups, ambulatory facilities, and managed care/health plans). The CPCS exam is for those professionals who specialize in processing initial and recredentialing applications, who perform primary source verification, and who ensure compliance with appropriate accrediting agencies.
This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg, but it serves as a great starting point.
And don’t forget, HCPro is offering you and your colleagues a 15% discount on all of HCPro’s medical staff and credentialing products through Nov. 12. Visit the HCMarketplace and enter EO107658A during check out to receive your discount.
Celebrate National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week with HCPro
As members of the medical staff services department, your hard work often flies under the radar. Sure patients are happy when they receive great care from their physician, but they may not realize how that physician became a trusted member of the medical staff. Or, how many times have you had to explain to friends and family what it is that you do? But this week is your week!
In 1992, President George Bush declared the first week of November as National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week. In honor of all that you do (and not just during the first week of November) HCPro is offering you and your colleagues a 15% discount on all of HCPro’s medical staff and credentialing products from Nov. 6-12. Visit the HCMarketplace and enter EO107658A during check out to receive your discount.
On behalf of HCPro, and as a patient who has always received great care from exceptional physicians, thanks for all of your hard work!
Make the most out of OPPE and FPPE
While at the 35th annual NAMSS conference a few weeks ago, I sat in on a discussion about OPPE and FPPE; specifically about how to get the most beneficial usage from these two tools with limited resources. The session presented by Jonathan Burroughs, MD, MBA, FACPE, and Mary Baker, DHA, CPMSM, served as a reminder that OPPE and FPPPE were established to help organizations, not hinder their credentialing and privileging processes. When times are tough and resources are limited, we have a tendency to get bogged down by all of the things we have to do and forget the significance of why we are doing them. Burroughs and Baker shed light on the importance of OPPE and FPPE while also offering some useful tips on how to make these processes more efficient.
In discussing OPPE, Burroughs recommended choosing indicators that measure important aspects of each performance dimension. These indicators can and should change. As new indicators are added into the mix, retire the ones that are not as useful. Burroughs suggested asking each department for one or two things they would like to see improved in the indicator selection process, then trying out those recommendations for a year or two before deciding whether to add them as a requirement for reappointment.
As for FPPE, Baker suggested that FPPE should not be a one size fit all process. Practitioners who bring similar experience and/or practice patterns can be treated in a similar way. The Joint Commission allows for flexibility in FPPE, which should be taken advantage of. “You have the ability to stop, shorten, or prolong FPPE,” said Baker during her talk. For example, if a practitioner’s competence can be evaluated in three or four shifts (an ED physician for example) there is no need to perform FPPE for three to six months. Because concurrent proctoring is time consuming, Baker recommended only using it when necessary. Another way to capitalize on FPPE is to take advantage of technology. Teleproctoring, simulation, and procedure recording are all becoming more popular as acceptable forms of measuring competency. Technology is being utilized for efficiency and patient safety all over the rest of the hospital, so why not in the medical staff office as well?
We’d love to hear from you: Do you use technology to make OPPE/FPPE easier? If so, email me at kkondilis@hcpro.com.
New on the job: Learning in the lone star state
As the new editor in the medical staff and credentialing division, my first two weeks at HCPro were spent not only learning how the office operates but also the many acronyms I need to know to survive in this field: MSSP, CVO, NPDB, MEC, FPPE, OPPE. So when I was asked to attend the annual NAMSS conference (add that to my acronym list) in Dallas, I jumped at the opportunity. How many people are lucky enough to attend a three-day class held by one of the national organizations supporting their field?
There was an overarching theme to all of the sessions I attended, which has also been a recurring theme in the books and newsletters I read these past few weeks: MSSPs have a lot on their plates, and the pile keeps getting bigger while the utensils needed to clear the plate keep getting smaller. What impressed me most at NAMSS was that despite this growing trend of more responsibilities and fewer resources, the MSSPs at the conference didn’t seem overwhelmed. They just wanted to hear from others and share their approaches to improving the MSSD. That’s probably why in most of the sessions I attended, people were sitting on the floors and lining the walls of the overcrowded rooms, eager to learn something new.
Another theme throughout the conference was how changes in healthcare will affect MSSDs. MSSPs are not insulated from these changes. For example, the number of employed or contracted practitioners at hospitals continues to grow and MSSPs need to spend more time and effort on-boarding and credentialing these new practitioners. Instead of departments within the same system acting as silos, why not find a way to share this information and eliminate duplication of services? That was the message from Vicki Searcy, CPMSM; Wendy Crimp, BSN, MBA, CPHQ; and Renne Aird Dengler, RN, MS, CPMSM, CPCS, during their presentation on the Accountable Credentialing Organization. They recommended creating a physician network services department to better align the process from recruitment to credentialing, leading to a faster turnaround time for practitioners to be enrolled with payers and generate revenue for the hospital.
Todd Sagin, MD, JD, discussed how ACOs will affect MSSDs. “It’s how the team functions that is going to matter,” was the point he wanted everyone to understand. ACOs will have quality benchmarks they have to meet to get paid, so there will not be room for weak links. At the same time, hospitals are recruiting more physicians who are used to practicing in an outpatient setting under less scrutiny. With the physician shortage predicted to increase in the coming years, hospitals will not have the leeway to just get rid of its weak links. The outcome, according to Sagin, will be a greater emphasis on peer reviews and remediation, meaning more work for MSSPs. The advice from Sagin, and most of the other speakers at NAMMS, was for the MSSPs to become as involved as possible in the changes taking place at their organizations. Ignoring the changes being made will not make them go away and will only lead to missed opportunities to keep the stack on the plate from getting bigger or the utensil pile getting smaller.
Join our eSolutions Development Partner Program
HCPro’s eSolutions Team has launched the Development Partner Program to integrate the voice of our customers in the product development process. You’ll help us best understand your day-to-day world including challenges, needs, and objectives, and gather rich product feedback that will allow us to build an eSolution that fulfills an important need and delivers a valuable solution.
HCPro will integrate your ideas and feedback into the early phases of eSolutions product development, helping to develop best-in-class solutions that exceed your expectations. Currently this includes a medical staff solutions offering. With minimal involvement of your team’s time, we’ll go through a four-phase feedback process where your input helps directly guide product development.
Interested? Click this link and go to the Development Partner Program registration page for more information. We are limiting the number of partners so that we can build quality relationships.
CMS eases credentialing and privileging by proxy for telemedicine providers
To the relief of many medical services professionals and credentialing coordinators, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid yesterday issued a telemedicine final rule that allows for credentialing and privileging by proxy, effective in 60 days after it publishes in the Federal Registry.
Under the revised Conditions of Participation (CoP) for hospitals and critical access hospitals, the originating site (the hospital where the patient is) can make credentialing and privileging decisions about telemedicine providers (practitioners who provide clinical services by electronic communication) using information from the distant site (the remote site where the telemedicine practitioner is located).
Free forms: CRC contest roundup
Thanks to all the readers who submitted their tools and tips for contest for free admission to the Credentialing Resource Center Symposium, May 12–13 in Las Vegas! The contest is now closed.
We’ve selected the best and posted them online for you to borrow these great resources and customize for your own organization.
Congratulations to the winners who will be joining us in Las Vegas on May 12–13:
- Contest February winner: Physician improvement policy (Karen Vineyard, CPMSM, Lapeer Regional Medical Center)
- Contest March winner: MEC orientation (Linda Van Winkle, CPMSM, CPCS, Christus St. Patrick Hospital)
- Contest April winner: New practitioner task checklist (Kathy J. Szary, Grinnell Regional Medical Center)
