NAMSS Releases its Sixth-Annual Industry Roundtable Report

The 2019 NAMSS Roundtable Report is now available.  NAMSS held its sixth-annual Roundtable discussion with industry stakeholders from 20 organizations including NAMSS on May 9, 2019 in Washington, DC. The past five NAMSS Roundtables have helped institute significant reforms to the credentialing, privileging, and licensure processes. This year’s Roundtable, Credentialing for Tomorrow, facilitated a discussion around adopting a more modern credentialing process while prioritizing patient safety.

The 2019 Roundtable continued to delve into the technology innovations of 2018 with a focused discussion on digitizing credentialing. The report provides an overview of the high-level discussion about how credentialing will evolve as more entities adopt and embrace technology. The report addresses the perspectives of hospitals, practitioners, payers, accrediting bodies, and government oversight entities on the importance of digitizing credentialing and the challenges associated with full adaptation.

Susan Diaz, NAMSS President, moderated the Roundtable presentation and Susan DuBois, NAMSS Government and Industry Relations Liaison, led the Roundtable participants’ discussion. The Report outlines several themes Roundtable participants discussed, including inconsistent enrollment quality standards, the lengthy process of credentialing a practitioner, excessive verification processes, credentialing non-physician practitioners, and institutions unwillingness to invest in credentialing technologies.  

The Roundtable also featured a discussion by FSMB that provided an update on FSMB’s research into digital credentialing, which compared legal, compliance, and technical aspects of digital signatures, open badges, and block chain.

NAMSS led a presentation with participants discussing their main credentialing pain points and potential alternatives or solutions to these pain points. NAMSS will continue to work with Roundtable participants and other stakeholders to develop standards, embrace innovation, and identify credentialing gaps and shortfalls as technology continues to advance.

The following organizations participated in 2019 Roundtable:

•          Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
•          American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
•          American Academy of PAs (AAPA)
•          American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
•          American Hospital Association (AHA)
•          American Medical Association (AMA)
•          Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS)
•          Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
•          Council for Affordable Quality Care (CAQH)
•          DNV GL Healthcare
•          Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)
•          Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB)
•          Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
•          Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP)
•          The Joint Commission
•          Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
•          Nation Council for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
•          National Practitioner Data Bank (NPBD)
•          URAC

ABMS Names Diane Meldi as Stakeholder Council Liaison to the Information and Data Sharing Task Force

NAMSS congratulates Diane Meldi, MBA, CPCS, CPMSM on being named as Stakeholder Counsel Liaison to American Board of Medical Specialties’ Information and Data Sharing Task Force. The Information and Data Sharing Task Force is one of five Task Forces ABMS created to execute its Achieving the Vision plan to develop a continuing certification program that achieves high quality patient-care standards.

The Task Force will develop research and data-sharing strategies to guide future certification assessments, enhance diplomat education, and communicate requirements and standards to strengthen and advance specialty learning and improvement goals. Through collaborations between ABMS Member Boards and key stakeholders, ABMS seeks to learn how continuing certification affects change in diplomat practice, professional development, and patient-care delivery.

As Liaison, Diane hopes to serve NAMSS members by influencing and reporting on ABMS data update frequency and their timeliness of changes. Diane recognizes the challenges and opportunities MSPs have regarding data sharing, “MSPs need to ensure that all data sources are accepted by federal and state regulations and accreditation standards. Additionally, managed care plans need to accurately reflect a physician’s certification status for their marketing materials. Opportunities associated with data sharing are faster verification, lower costs, and the ability to share the importance of physician board certification.”

MSPs can benefit from, and influence, clinical data-sharing processes and policies by demonstrating the role timely and accurate data has in ensuring credentialing excellence and efficiency. Diane’s liaison role will also help show how data sharing can improve the payer and practitioner credentialing processes. “Health care organizations may require certification and recertification and depend on accuracy and timeliness. The number of days to complete the initial credentialing process is getting shorter and shorter. This would ensure that MSPs can get the verifications requested faster.”

The ABMS Stakeholder Liaisons will provide guidance to the Oversight Committee and providing recommendations to the five Task Forces:

• Advancing Practice

• Information and Data Sharing

• Professionalism

• Remediation

•        Standards

The ABMS Commission Task Force Oversight Committee determines each Task Force’s deliverables and timelines. Stay tuned for more updates from Diane Meldi on the progress of the Information and Data Sharing Task Force.

Click here to read the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Commission's Final Report. Click here to read more about the ABMS Vision Initiative. Click here to read more about the five Task Forces.