One key element of C4UHC’s mission to standardize the healthcare credentialing process is to eliminate duplicative efforts and the significant, associated costs.
There are several, specific problems that a standardized, interoperable approach could help solve. One of the easier solutions to implement is optimizing the use of W-9s and corporate identities in vendor credentialing systems.
Supplier Challenges Within Vendor Credentialing Organization (VCO) Systems
When validating the supplier company, three related challenges emerge for suppliers within the Vendor Credentialing Organization (VCO) systems:
- The lack of visibility options for supplier credentialing managers/administrators to verify their own company or rep accounts.
- Supplier representatives’ ability to enter their own version of the company name. This leads to variations in the supplier organization name (Ex: Acme Corp v. Acme Medical Corp v. Acme Global.)
- Multiple variations of corporate identity, may result in the supplier representative to not be connected to the correct Parent Company account.
These challenges highlight the limited visibility into and the duplication within the VCO rosters that supplier vendor credentialing staff need to manage. Cleaning the “corrupted” data requires considerable effort from the supplier staff – and may delay rep support for clinical care delivery.
“No one intentionally creates work for their fellow colleagues in the healthcare system. But most people don’t know how a small error can increase risk and generate a cascade of issues that require an exponential number of hours to address,” said Janet M. Darling, Credentialing Manager, Philips North America, LLC.
One simple approach to eliminating these challenges is to use the supplier organization’s W-9 tax form which includes the Employer Identification Number (EIN) for legal verification. Ideally, the VCO registration form then provides a drop-down menu to allow the representative to choose the correct EIN for their organization.
By doing this:
- Healthcare providers and VCOs gain assurance that the supplier company and its affiliates therein are valid.
- VCO supplier company accounts are more concise within their system, reducing duplicative documentation requirements and improving rep account cleanup processes.
- Supplier credentialing administrators then, when granted VCO account visibility to their reps, have a greater ability to validate employment, increase accuracy, and reduce redundancy of document requests and individual rep submissions.
This is a real-world example of how standardizing just one aspect of the vendor credentialing process increases accuracy, reduces risk, and saves hours of administrative effort on roster cleanup.
“Ultimately, allowing credentialing administrators to focus on assisting their reps maintain their access to clinical care areas supports patient care – the overall goal of all of us!” said Darling.
Standardized Company Names Drive Better Healthcare Vendor Credentialing
One key element of C4UHC’s mission to standardize the healthcare credentialing process is to eliminate duplicative efforts and the significant, associated costs.
There are several, specific problems that a standardized, interoperable approach could help solve. One of the easier solutions to implement is optimizing the use of W-9s and corporate identities in vendor credentialing systems.
Supplier Challenges Within Vendor Credentialing Organization (VCO) Systems
When validating the supplier company, three related challenges emerge for suppliers within the Vendor Credentialing Organization (VCO) systems:
These challenges highlight the limited visibility into and the duplication within the VCO rosters that supplier vendor credentialing staff need to manage. Cleaning the “corrupted” data requires considerable effort from the supplier staff – and may delay rep support for clinical care delivery.
“No one intentionally creates work for their fellow colleagues in the healthcare system. But most people don’t know how a small error can increase risk and generate a cascade of issues that require an exponential number of hours to address,” said Janet M. Darling, Credentialing Manager, Philips North America, LLC.
One simple approach to eliminating these challenges is to use the supplier organization’s W-9 tax form which includes the Employer Identification Number (EIN) for legal verification. Ideally, the VCO registration form then provides a drop-down menu to allow the representative to choose the correct EIN for their organization.
By doing this:
This is a real-world example of how standardizing just one aspect of the vendor credentialing process increases accuracy, reduces risk, and saves hours of administrative effort on roster cleanup.
“Ultimately, allowing credentialing administrators to focus on assisting their reps maintain their access to clinical care areas supports patient care – the overall goal of all of us!” said Darling.