What is Credentialing in Medical Billing?

Provider credentialing in medical billing is the process through which healthcare organizations and insurance companies can verify the credentials of healthcare providers. These verifications include checking whether or not providers have valid licenses, certifications, and skills for offering proper care to patients. The provider credentialing services are also known as:

Physician Credentialing
Medical Credentialing
Doctor Credentialing

How Credentialing in Medical Billing Works?

Every healthcare practice must have a dedicated credentialing person, or they should outsource their provider credentialing process to a third-party billing provider.

By outsourcing the credentialing process in medical billing, healthcare professionals can easily carry out their duties in a more secure environment. The provider credentialing process in medical billing has several steps followed meticulously to ensure the efficiency of the healthcare process. These include the following:

Verification of the Clinic

It involves verification processes for the clinic, its training programs, and the subsequent efficiency of physicians.

Eligibility for Medical Services

It is where a healthcare provider is verified to see whether they fulfill the hospital work requirements.

Setting of Basic Rules

Setting up ground rules for denying professional verifications following the pre-application process.

Reapplying Process

Instating a process for facilitating the rejected healthcare workers to reapply after their initial rejection.

Rapid Processing for Credentialing in Medical Billing

It is essential to have a swift credentialing process for short-term employment staff and emergency personnel.

Guidelines to Limit Non-Complying Providers

Limiting of individual healthcare workers who do not comply with the guidelines or the health requirements.

Important Steps for Insurance Credentialing

The insurance credentialing in medical billing validates that a physician meets the standards of providing clinical care. It is where the Payers verify a physician’s:

Education
License
Experience
Certifications
Affiliations
Malpractice
Adverse clinical occurrences – if any
Training

This process is essential for providers and the nursing staff to be in the network with some insurance companies to get paid for the services provided through patients’ insurance plans.

Insurance credentialing in medical billing has the following key steps.

1-Identification of Relevant Documents

Every insurance provider has their own sets of forms and other documentation. For application submission, a provider must incorporate all documentation that insurers have requested. Skipping on a single information or document can delay the approvals for weeks or months.
The necessary details include:

Name
SSN or Social Security number
Demographic details
Education information
Proof of licensure
Claims history
Career history, and more.
Submitting Application Forms

After the important details are available, the second step is prioritizing insurers. It can be done by creating a list of all insurance provider companies a practice intends to file. Rechecking and verifying documents is the next step of the process, and then comes the completion of the application, either on paper or online. It is essential to ensure the validity and correctness of data, as even minor mistakes, including errors in phone numbers or wrong month date of employment, can cause issues later on.

2-Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare Profile

Most major health insurance provider companies require facilities to apply for credentialing in medical billing via CAQH (Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare). Providers here must complete their CAQH form rather than online or on paper. After submission of initial applications, ensure to re-attest the information when and where needed.

Consistent Follow-ups

Clarifying the payers’ questions and subsequent follow-ups of the credentialing requests is vital. Both are done to ensure that applications get approval without unnecessary delays. Physicians credentialing takes time and can take anywhere between 90 to 120 days.

Medical Billing Companies Promoting Credentialing

Quality care in the medical industry has taken on a central position – now, every stakeholder is equipped with modern approaches and techniques to offer quality care. The healthcare staff’s experience is also essential wherever technology integration is inevitable. Technological advancements with an experienced team can effectively boost practice revenue.
Still, the medical staff’s integrity can’t be overlooked or undermined. Furthermore, these days’ hospitals value medical billing qualifications. Nobody today will miss out on the credentials at any healthcare facility, including long-term care facilities, outpatient centers, and even emergency clinics.
Qualifications of the healthcare providers build a sense of trust and confidence between the patients and physicians. There have been instances where unqualified personnel were found handling healthcare services and patients. However, now, there is little room for such a type of negligence. Thus, many medical billing companies, insurance providers, and even healthcare practices now value the importance of credentialing in medical billing and care.

Final Word

Healthcare providers must continually analyze their billing processes. Billing inefficiencies, errors, and optimization opportunities are better identified this way. The steps mentioned above are for credentialing in the medical billing process and improving a healthcare practice’s revenue. It enables medical providers to offer top-quality care and ensures accurate and timely payments. While the current credentialing process in healthcare is frustrating (over 91% of physicians believe that the credentialing process for medical billing needs serious updates), most healthcare professionals can streamline the process by taking an active role.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a credentialing process in medical billing?

Credentialing in medical billing validates whether a physician is meeting quality clinical care standards. Furthermore, insurance providers also verify a physician’s licenses, education, experience, affiliations, malpractice, certifications, and training.

What are the basics of credentialing?

The credentialing process includes the establishment of providers’ qualifications and the assessment of their legitimacy and background.

What is re-credentialing?

It is a payer activity that entails reviewing and the potential requests for renewals of a healthcare professional’s credentials for maintaining the status of a healthcare facility.