New URAC Issue Brief Answers Questions About Delegated Credentialing, Transparency in Physician Tierin...( Brief will be released at AHIP In...),Health

Brief will be released at AHIP Institute July 18-20

WASHINGTON, June 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new issue brief from URAC provides answers for health plans and health networks wrestling with market demands for physician measurement and new trends in outsourcing of credentialing services.

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The brief will become available during the AHIP Institute, June 18-20 in San Francisco. URAC is an AHIP exhibitor and will also be offering educational workshops for several of its accreditation programs during the Institute, including workshops for Health Network and Health Plan accreditations.

Health plans and health networks must balance the purchaser's need for assurance about the quality and efficiency of practitioners with the burden to provide broad access to desirable providers. URAC's standards surrounding provider credentialing help clarify how organizations can strike this balance in an environment where more companies are outsourcing credentialing services.

"URAC's standards require that the plan or network still is the party that renders the decision to allow the provider to participate in the network, even if the credentialing process itself is outsourced," said Christine Leyden, URAC's chief accreditation officer. "The delegated credentialing requirements ensure that plans and networks are still applying the same quality standards to their vendors' credentialing process and keeping consumer protection top-of-mind."

Most health plans and health networks still do the majority of credentialing in-house, although a growing number of organizations delegate credentialing by contracting with a qualified vendor to assist in the process. Vendors may be located either in the United States or abroad. According to both quantitative and qualitative research conducted by URAC in 2007, c
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