The Basics

This standard carries two requirements.  First, your organization must have mechanisms by which it communicates with providers about the credentialing status, upon request.  Second, your organization must be willing and able to accept additional information from providers that they submit in order to correct incomplete, inaccurate, or conflicting credentialing information.

Note that this standard does not say that your credentialing committee cannot take conflicting information into account; only that it must allow the provider to submit information to try to clear up inconsistent information.  If, after receiving such information, your credentialing committee is still concerned about the truthfulness of the information, it may act on that concern.

Management Tips

Often, organizations address the standard by sending providers cover letters that offer the provider information about how to contact your organization in the midst of the credentialing process to find out more information, including current status of the application.

URAC Accreditation Tips

This standard carries a weight of 3, and both elements are secondary.

During the desktop review phase, you should submit your credentialing plan, which must include a description of how he organization responds to requests from providers about whether application is in the credentialing process.

As is the case with many of the credentialing standards, most of the effort to assure compliance with this will be conducted during the review of three dozen credentialing files.  In addition, members of the credentialing staff will be interviewed to see if they understand the organization's policies and procedures about responding to provide a request for information about the credentialing process.