Whether it’s a simple human error or an inefficient process, making a mistake could impact your bottom line. These processes may be time-consuming and arduous, but it’s they’re absolute necessities for your practice. 

Unfortunately, it’s easy to make a mistake during these function.

The sooner your credentialing mistakes are taken care of, the sooner you can focus on the day to day issues of serving patients and receiving timely payments. Ignore the significance of provider credentialing at your own risk it is certainly one of the most important compliance issues that a medical practice encounters.

To help achieve that level of perfection, here are the four biggest mistakes you should avoid during the credential process:

1. Not Completing/Incorrect Applications
2. Neglecting To Follow Up
3. Waiting To Start The Process
4. Not Assigning Roles To Your Staff

1. Not Completing/Incorrect Applications

• If you want to avoid denials and delays, you need to make sure that an application does not contain any errors and are filled out entirely.
• A credentialing application will ask for important pieces of information such as contact information, employment history, phone numbers, and other important records.

2.  Neglecting To Follow Up

• In order for credentialing to be a successful process, an organization needs to continuously follow up with its payers.
• You need to stay on top of them to ensure they are processing your applications in a timely fashion.  
• Don’t be afraid to reach out to them to check on the status of the applications.
• Try to get in the habit of contacting them on a routine basis to monitor the status of your submissions.

3. Waiting To Start The Process

• There is no time for procrastination in the credentialing process.  
• You need to get the train rolling as soon as possible.
• It can take a while to complete a thorough background check of a doctor, so you  will want to give your organization at least a couple of months before any doubts set in just in case there are any issues.

4. Not Assigning Roles To Your Staff

• Since there is so much that goes into the credentialing process, you need to have a competent team in place to ensure it is always running smoothly.
• All too often, organizations do not assign roles for staff members to manage the workload.
• For example, you need people who will enter data/ensure its accuracy.  If there are loosely defined responsibilities within your organization, it will cause errors which will lead to denials and delays.

Ultimately, the best way to prevent mistakes that can hinder or even derail the #credentialing process is to utilize specialists familiar with the entire process. Our skilled experts will work with you to streamline and speed up your credentialing process. 

Contact us for more information for more customized credentialing options suitable for your practice needs.