Type in Credentialing Software into your search bar and you will see tons of advertised physician credentialing software companies but what is the difference between what you see on that list and Credential Agent?
Credentialing Software is Different for Dr’s Then for Nurses or Allied Professionals
The difference is that all those credentialing companies are specifically designed to manage credentialing for Doctors or Physicians so that one can get paid from insurance companies whereas Credential Agent is designed for other staff like Nurses, Allied professionals, contractors, vendors or other employees that have credentials that must be kept up to date for legal or health reasons.
Let’s take a look at what type of credentials are required for say a Registered Nurse and how hard it is for anyone to ensure that all their employees are compliant. A Register Nurse typically must have; current nursing state license, immunization shots like HepB, certifications like CPR, background checks, HIPPA compliance forms, and other HR related documents. All told, a Registered Nurse must have 20-30 “credentials” that often have expiration dates. Times those documents by say 100 nurse employees and you are talking about 2,000-3,000 credentials that are expiring at different intervals. Its an enormous task to make sure that all employees credentials are up to date.
Typical Process of Keeping Employee Credentials Updated
The typical process of keeping employee credentials updated is that before an employee starts working, someone in HR will get all credentials together and put them in a traditional file cabinet. Some HR people responsible for credentialing upkeep might even have an excel spreadsheet with expiration dates which can later be manually reviewed.
However, imagine what it is like for nurse employees who are working for the company for a few years. How does the HR person know when a credential is expiring especially when you are talking about 20, 50 or even more employees and even if one is super organized? Think of all the work that is involved in getting those employees notified about a needed immunization or other out of date credential?
The Risk of Being Out of Compliance
Imagine the risk you are putting your company or even others into by having a Nurse that has her credentials out of compliance. Suppose you have a Nurse that hasn’t had her HEPB or TB immunization updated and the risk to the people she is treating. For those of you who are JCAHO certified, it is also well known that JCAHO will often do yearly inspections and you run the risk of not being certified causing you to potentially lose an important requirement for payment.
What Does Credential Agent Software Do to Solve This Problem?
Credential Agent is Software that allows you to store the credentialing information in an easy to see format. 90, 60, 30, 15, 7 and 1 day before a credential is about to expire, Credential Agent will automatically send out an email to the employee, the HR credentialing person, and anyone else that you wish. These notifications are a huge benefit to all parties involved because it allows time for the credential to become compliant. In addition, it takes a very large project and breaks it down into manageable parts. Now the employee is involved in making sure she stays compliant because of course the employee wants to continue working and HR is also on top of issues well in advance.
Credential Agent also allows HR to run unlimited reports which results in HR being able to get ahead of expiring credentials. It isn’t uncommon for HR to run a “Credentials Expiring in 60 days Report” or a “Credentials Expired Report” at the end of each month which allows HR to get on top of any issues.
The reports are also very effective at when any type of audits are done by either a customer or an organization like JCAHO. Often what happens in these audits is that when the auditor sees how organized you are they will move onto something else and we have seen companies give more business when they see that Credential Agent Software is used.
There is also Another Total Solution
If you wish, Credential Agent can also manage the who credential management process for you. We will use our staff and our software to onboard and manage the upkeep of your employee or vendor credentialing allowing your team to stay focused on other more important mission critical issues.
It’s Like Buying Life Insurance
When one buys life insurance you hope you never have to us it early. Credential Agent is the same. Its hard to make the decision to move forward with the expense but if you ever make a mistake using old, outdated, and unproductive credentialing upkeep processes, it could cost your business dearly and worse, you could really cause medical problems for a patient.
The decision you make to move to Credential Agent could prove to be the best decision you ever made.