The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has updated its patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition standards. Almost 6,800 sites have achieved NCQA recognition, the organization stated. Many payers across the country plan to pay practices a bonus for meeting NCQA standards. In...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 12
The nation will get a good look this week at the future faces of medicine. Friday is Match Day, the high-pressure equivalent of Draft Day in professional sports, when medical school seniors find out where they will be doing their residency training. Students found out Monday whether they...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 10
When he releases his budget next week, President Obama will propose boosting the National Health Services Corps from 8,900 a year to 15,000 a year over the next five years, as well as spending $5.23 billion to train 13,000 primary care residents over the next 10 years, administration officials...
In May 2013, The Cleveland Clinic, a large hospital system in Cleveland, Ohio, had 15 CMS violations ranging from medical staff bylaw and governing body responsibilities to surgical privileges and medical staff qualifications. In the same month, Dallas Medical Center registered...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 9
Medical homes take a team approach to care, with the help of everyone from nurses to front desk staff focusing on preventing and managing chronic disease. The goal is to avoid costly and preventable complications. However, a three-year pilot study of medical home practices in Pennsylvania found...
Baptist Memorial Health Care System joined theTennessee Center for Patient Safety, an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)–listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO), more than two years ago. In June 2012, Sharon Fiveash, RN, MSN, assumed the role of PSO administrator...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 7
The largest of 26 coalitions participating in the $218 million, federally funded Hospital Engagement Networks (HEN) program claims it has prevented 69,000 patients from hospital-caused complications at 1,600 hospitals in its first two years compared to rates from the recent past. Hospitals...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 6
CMS has extended a delay in the enforcement of Final Rule 1599-F by prolonging the probe and educate period. This is the third time CMS has delayed enforcement of the policy, which requires a patient to stay in the hospital for more than two midnights before CMS will reimburse a hospital at...
Too many hospitals and healthcare leaders experience serious safety failures as routine and inevitable parts of daily work, according to an article published in the September 2013 issue of The Milbank Quarterly. In the article, authors Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president and...
Credentialing Resource Center Journal - Volume 23, Issue 2
After uncovering my first undisclosed issue while working a credentials file, I was told to call the physician to request a detailed explanation. I can't remember what it was I had to ask about, but I vividly recall feeling horrified, ill-equipped, and small.