Complete a Survey; Improve Universal Credentialing Process

The AAFP is calling on all family physicians -- or their medical practice staff members -- who have used a free online credentialing application developed by the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, or CAQH, to complete a questionnaire to assess that experience.

The deadline to respond to the online questionnaire is Nov. 23, and survey results will be used to further simplify the credentialing application process.

The AAFP and the Medical Group Management Association, or MGMA, compiled the 2007 credentialing application questionnaire. Both organizations support the Healthcare Administrative Simplification Coalition, or HASC, in its efforts to simplify the overall administrative complexity of the U.S. health care system, including the physician credentialing process. Identities of survey respondents will be kept confidential; however, blinded data will be shared with HASC, public officials and the media.

CAQH's Universal Credentialing DataSource allows registered physicians and other health care professionals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to enter credentialing information into a single uniform online application that meets the needs of most health plans, hospitals and other health care organizations.

To date, seven states and the District of Columbia require health insurance companies, hospitals and other credentialing organizations to accept CAQH's standard physician credentialing form.

According to a recent CAQH press release, more than 500,000 health care professionals and 350 health plans across the country have taken advantage of its credentialing process. Of those health care professionals, nearly 38,000 are family physicians.

According to estimates from MGMA, since its inception, universal credentialing has spared physician practices more than 2.5 million man-hours -- the equivalent of 1,250 full-time employees -- that otherwise would have been spent in repetitive submission of credentialing information. In addition, those saved hours have cut health care professionals' administrative costs by more than $75 million a year.