It’s hard to believe that we have been battling COVID-19 for more than a year now. It has impacted every facet of our lives, but the hardest impact of this pandemic is the medical profession. Those who work in the medical field had to comprehend how to overcome new challenges head on. Over the past year, front line workers in the medical profession faced huge obstacles while managing extreme fatigue, mental exhaustion and burnout. What patient care looked like changed dramatically. Office visits became a thing of the past and telemedicine became the new norm. Physicians were pushed out of their comfort zone and asked to care for patient’s hands free. Temporary Medicare waivers on limitations made this tool more accessible. During periods of state and county lockdowns, telemedicine became the only safe way patients and providers could keep in touch on routine, acute care and chronic illness issues. Staffing was a huge issue. Having enough doctors, nurses, and other front line workers available to meet the crushing daily census of Emergency Room and ICU Departments was never ending. The demand for frontline workers became so high that COVID-19 temporary healthcare provider registries were developed to allow temporary licensing privileges in some states.
The area of provider enrollment was pressured to find “work arounds” to allow medical staff to work virtually, obtain different privileges, and add new physicians. Understanding what the correct guidelines were for insurance credentialing became overwhelming. While payer credentialing process was a crucial component for patient care, there was additional pressure to add staff quickly to meet the ever increasing demand of patient flow. In order for all these changes to occur with accuracy there had to be an understanding of the correct guidelines for credentialing. Several of the managed care websites provided COVID-19 credentialing updates, but keeping up with and interpreting these changes can be taxing. Others added recredentialing extensions, waived site visits and offered to extend or delay temporary credentialing status for new providers. Payer credentialing call centers were impacted by COVID-19, which in turn caused them to become short staffed, therefore call times were increased.
Looking toward the future, we are told we may not be free of this pandemic until late 2022. With the hope of the new vaccines and the fear of new strains, we are not sure what the rest of 2021 will look like. Partnering with resources with the skill and knowledge needed to navigate through these times is very important. nCred is an outsourced credentialing services provider with a custom developed credentialing software platform used for managing the process of provider enrollment for insurance credentialing, medical license application processing, facility privilege application processing, maintenance of provider credentialing files, and primary source verification. We are up to date on all of the current information to make sure that your credentialing process is completed quickly and accurately. With over a decade in the business, our clients know they are receiving up to date, knowledgeable and professional services. For more information, please give us a call at (423)-443-4525 or email us at info@nationalcredentialng.com
