American Academy of Family Physicians Endorses Universal Credentialing DataSource for Use by Its 94,000 Members.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2004 One of America's largest medical organizations, the American Academy of Family Physicians American Academy of Family Physicians, n.pr a national medical organization established in 1947 to promote the practice of family medicine. (AAFP AAFP American Academy of Family Physicians. AAFP abbr. American Academy of Family Physicians AAFP, n.pr See American Academy of Family Physicians. ), today announced its endorsement of Universal Credentialing Credentialing is the administrative process for validating the qualifications of licensed professionals, organizational members or organizations, and assessing their background and legitimacy. DataSource. The service from the not-for-profit Not-for-profit An organization established for charitable, humanitarian, or educational purposes that is exempt from some taxes and in which no one in profits or losses. Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH CAQH Coalition for Affordable Quality Healthcare ) streamlines the credentialing data submission process for physicians. AAFP is encouraging family physicians and their staff to adopt this innovative online service to ease the administrative burden. The endorsement by AAFP, which represents more than 93,700 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students nationwide, acknowledges the value of Universal Credentialing DataSource in simplifying the credentialing process. Already, more than 85,000 physicians nationwide participate in the free service, which was developed by the nation's leading health plans. Medical office staff who manage credentialing for physicians report a significant reduction in time and paperwork using Universal Credentialing DataSource, as compared to traditional data submission procedures. "For family physicians, filling out multiple credentialing forms can be a tremendous burden," said Michael O. Fleming, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., president of AAFP. "Universal Credentialing DataSource will help physicians and their staff save time, reduce paperwork and improve the way they work with health plans. We're pleased to lend our endorsement to this exciting advance in healthcare administration Healthcare administration is a term that typically refers to the Master of Health Administration (MHA)—also Master of Healthcare Administration— degree, which is a graduate professional degree that provides training in health policy, economics, project and ." With Universal Credentialing DataSource, information is entered one time, online or by fax, to meet the credentialing and recredentialing requirements of all participating healthcare organizations. Simple updates help ensure that practice information is always accurate, and changes are automatically sent to health plans authorized au·thor·ize tr.v. au·thor·ized, au·thor·iz·ing, au·thor·iz·es 1. To grant authority or power to. 2. To give permission for; sanction: by each physician. Data collected through Universal Credentialing DataSource is maintained by CAQH in a secure, state-of-the-art data center, and is only made available to healthcare organizations that have been authorized by each physician. Each healthcare organization reviews and verifies credentialing data, and decides independently whether or not a physician meets its standards for participation. "We are delighted by AAFP's endorsement of Universal Credentialing DataSource," said Robin J. Thomashauer, executive director of CAQH. "Achieving meaningful change requires the leadership of organizations like the Academy. It is a validation See validate. validation - The stage in the software life-cycle at the end of the development process where software is evaluated to ensure that it complies with the requirements. of what we set out to accomplish: developing a service by which health plans, working collaboratively, can reduce the administrative burdens faced by providers." Universal Credentialing DataSource is available in 43 states and the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). . It will be available in nationwide by the end of 2004. To learn more about the service, visit www.caqh.org. About CAQH The Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) is a not-for-profit alliance of health plans and networks that promotes collaborative initiatives to help make healthcare more affordable, share knowledge to improve the quality of care, and make administration easier for physicians and their patients. CAQH member organizations provide and administer health care coverage for more than 100 million Americans. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion