It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor who is just starting your practice or if you’ve been in the field for many years–medical credentialing is key to beginning, maintaining and growing a practice. It used to be common to accept cash from patients for healthcare services and have a prosperous practice, but that is now outdated. Doctors need to get on insurance panels–or become “in network” with insurance plans—because healthcare in the U.S. is available to more people. Being on insurance panels means that doctors are eligible to accept third-party payments from both their new and potential patients, a factor that is of utmost importance to growing the practice.

Because of healthcare reform, more people have insurance plans and won’t pay cash for services. Added to that is costly healthcare premiums and the fact that HMO plans are more mainstream than PPO plans. That means out-of-network benefits are now becoming a thing of the past. The services for new and existing conditions are now more stabilized and are able to be covered.

The fact is that patients are not only asking if their insurance covers services–they are adamant that doctors accept their insurance. Doctors want to make sure they garner new patients and keep those they already have, so they are finding it mandatory to accept insurance. They need to be enrolled in insurance plans or get credentialed.

Before you set out to do your own medical credentialing, make sure you know what you’re up against in this arduous process. The following points outline what is typical for each insurance panel.

• Make a decision about the insurance panels you want to be on.
• Carve out blocks of time in your busy day to spend making telephone calls and doing the research for the latest versions of each application.
• Fill out each application, which can range anywhere from 30 to 100 pages.
• Pay strict attention to the requirements on the applications, because there are precise formats for each of them.
• Make phone calls to each of the insurance companies to be certain the applications were received in the appropriate department. In the event that an application gets lost in the shuffle of paperwork or sits in a pile on a desk, it is not being worked on, reviewed and going through the process. All too often when this happens, the deadline expires, the application is rejected and the procedure must start again.
• You may be asked to supply other documents to accompany your application.
• Make sure to call each of the insurance companies again, ascertaining the materials are moving along in the process.
• In the event that a clarification is needed, make sure to supply it quickly in order not to hold up the process any longer or miss the deadline.
• In the case when an application is rejected, an appeal must be submitted formally in response.

If you don’t want to deal with the struggles and lengthiness of do-it-yourself medical credentialing, turn the job over to our team of professionals. Join the thousands of healthcare professionals who have selected MedicalCredentialing.org for medical credentialing for more than 10 years. Known for their flawless execution and efficiency in medical credentialing, the following are the many benefits of choosing us.

• The professionals will work with you to ensure you select the insurance panels that are best suited for you.
• Instead of filling out piles of paperwork, you only have to fill out one easy form–our Master Survey.
• The team moves expeditiously to begin the work to secure your insurance panels.
• You won’t have to guess where your applications are in the process. You can view your credentialing account online any time it’s convenient for you, day or night, every day of the week. And, your information is always seen in real time. If you prefer to talk to our credentialing team, they’d be happy to provide you with the information you request.