Education and collaboration are the two words to keep in mind when MSPs work with outside entities. Successful MSPs foster strong relationships by continually educating themselves on requirements for their offices and how their office communicates with regulatory agencies. Many MSPs are often the liaison during a survey, providing welcome documents, escorting the surveyor around the facility, and sitting in on formal audits and interviews. MSPs also provide any follow-up on issues or questions posed by the surveyor. This is where the MSP can shine as an important part of the administrative leadership.

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in support of the expansion of telemedicine services, particularly in rural areas. This order makes permanent the increased offering of telemedicine services necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turnaround times are critical. Everybody wants to know: Where is the information? What’s the hang-up in the process? Being able to definitively show that is critical, but also when you're talking about primary source verification, what are the elements that are taking so long to have returns? From a managed care perspective, you may or may not be capturing references.

The Credentialing Resource Center’s annual MSP Salary Survey measures the compensation rates, essential duties, and other workplace trends shaping the careers of MSPs across the industry. The 2020 edition features new and improved questions and response options, developed with input from MSPs working in credentialing environments ranging from acute care hospitals and ambulatory centers to CVOs and health plans.

Click here to take the 2020 MSP Salary Survey today to make sure your professional experiences are represented. The more responses we have, the more meaningful (and actionable) the data will be in the special reports we release for both CRC members and non-members.

Beyond receiving copies of the reports, to show our thanks for taking the survey, we will select one person at random to recieve free on-demand access to the 2020 Credentialing Resource Center Virtual Event.

Convinced? Click the following link to take the 2020 MSP Salary Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KFCBM6L.

Healthcare organizations have become increasingly complex. In past decades, most organizations provided patient care within the walls of the facility. Essentially, no clinical care was provided outside the facility. This care delivery model is no longer the norm—it is actually quite the contrary. Many healthcare organizations provide significant healthcare services outside the four walls of the hospital. There are many hospital- or system-owned ambulatory care facilities and services. 

Once a hospital has established which sites require practitioners to be privileged, the medical staff needs to evaluate the scope of services provided at the site by physicians and advanced practice professionals (APP), such as NPs and PAs. Thereafter, the medical staff delineates site-specific privileges and commensurate criteria.

The following figure provides some examples of physician indicators of performance that apply to the ambulatory setting. The Six General Competencies adapted from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) joint initiative serve as the framework for categorizing the measurement indicator.

Mary Barr, CPMSM, was new to her position as director of medical affairs at St. John Medical Center. With extensive experience as an MSP, Mary initially focused her attention on the scope of credentialing and privileging of current medical staff members, advanced practice professionals, and new applicants. As the months passed, Mary realized that only some of the physicians working at the four St. John Family Healthcare Centers had privileges at St. John Medical Center. Further, the scope of the privileges granted to these physicians was silent regarding their practice at the health centers.

Last year set the record for the number of fatal drug overdoses in the United States. According to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 71,000 people across the country died of a drug overdose in 2019 alone. Additionally, between 1998 and 2018, nearly 450,000 people died of an opioid overdose, approximately 47,000 of whom died in 2018.

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) are state databases that track prescriptions for controlled substances. Both prescribers and pharmacists have access to PDMPs; in fact, pharmacists are required to enter filled prescriptions into PDMPs prior to dispensing, and in some states, physicians must consult the PDMP prior to prescribing certain controlled substances.