Medical credentialing is one of the most vital processes in running a clinic, helping protect patients and ensuring doctor records can be verified. This process involves verifying healthcare professionals’ qualifications, licenses, and professional experience to ensure they fulfill requirements established by regulatory agencies, insurance networks, and healthcare institutions. Outsourcing medical credentialing can be a cost-effective solution to help your clinic run smoothly. How so? Read more to find out.

The Complexity of Medical Credentialing

Medical credentialing is no small task. Oftentimes it can take a team of professionals to sift and verify records, even when a doctor has them on hand. Each piece of information supplied by a healthcare professional must be verified by the main source, which might be educational institutions, licensing boards, or other regulatory bodies. Credentialing also involves a significant time investment. It can take just a couple of weeks to several months to get a provider credentialed.

Moreover, new laws, rules, and procedures are commonplace, and being up to date on these changes is critical for effective certification. Errors or oversights can have major legal and financial consequences for healthcare providers. Noncompliance with credentialing requirements can lead to penalties, legal challenges, and harm to a practice’s image, not to mention the danger to patient safety. To learn more, check out our article here:

Reasons to Outsource Medical Credentialing

There are many different reasons to outsource medical credentialing, especially if you are a smaller clinic. Furthermore, outsourcing can also provide you with benefits you didn’t know you needed.

Expertise and Experience

Outsourcing businesses specialize in the intricacies of medical credentialing, offering in-depth knowledge and experience. The companies hire specialists in their field to help navigate credentialing on a local/state/federal level to ensure compliance across the board. These professionals oftentimes can have decades of experience and know how to navigate the process with ease and are usually the first to know about changes.

Cost Efficiency

It can be costly to hire, train, and keep experienced medical credentialing staff. Not only can salaries be expensive, but you also have to deal with turnover and compete with other clinics for talent. Outsourcing is a cost-effective approach since it eliminates the need for large expenditures in staff training, technology, and infrastructure to manage credentialing internally. If you are looking for an internal solution, that’s okay. You can outsource for a period of time until you have your department ready.

Time Savings

Outsourcing companies specialize in credentialing, so they can often speed up the process, lowering the time it takes to onboard new physicians and improving the practice’s capacity to serve its patients. Outsourcing also allows you to free up personnel to work on other tasks instead of focusing solely on credentialing.

Risk Mitigation

When it comes to the credentialing process, a minor setback can cost you weeks of time. Not to mention, the legal ramifications of a mistake being made. Outsourcing companies help mitigate this risk by employing rigorous verification processes and continuous monitoring of credentialing standards.

You Have Limited Staffing

Many healthcare offices, particularly small ones, may lack the staffing resources required to properly handle the credentialing process. Outsourcing allows you to access a team of credentialing professionals without having to recruit additional staff. This can help you keep costs down and scale your service as you see fit.

Scaling Your Credentialing

As healthcare practices expand, so do the complexity and volume of their credentialing requirements. Outsourcing allows you to scale credentialing efforts up or down depending on the practice’s needs. You don’t have to let your small practice size slow you down from seeking out the best doctors or having yet another hurdle that hampers cash flow.

Need Medical Credentialing Services for Your Clinic?

Are you considering outsourcing your medical credentialing to a third party? Don’t worry, we know that this decision can be tough. 360Connect can make it easy though. Just fill out our 1–2-minute form and you can receive up to 5 quotes for medical credentialing services. It’s that simple.