An increasingly common mechanism is to establish a formal information-sharing agreement between the hospital medical staff and the employed physician group. These agreements allow the parties to recognize that patient safety and the effectiveness of their credentialing, privileging, and peer review processes can be improved by the appropriate sharing of credentialing, quality improvement, and peer review information related to physicians—in other words, peer review activity.

One very common clause in a physician employment agreement is “co-terminus” language, which addresses whether clinical privileges are tied to the employment contract. If they are, then physicians automatically lose their clinical privileges if the employment contract is terminated. This agreement is between the physician and the employer.

Calling all provider enrollment specialists and professionals—We want to hear from you! Join us for a focus group call on Tuesday, August 20 at 10am ET or Thursday, August 29 at 1pm ET to discuss the 2020 National Provider Enrollment Forum. Whether you're a past attendee or new to the provider enrollment field, we want to know what you're most interested in learning about, what challenges you're currently facing, and how we can best meet your provider enrollment needs at the 2020 Forum. As a thank you for participating in the focus group, all callers will recieve a complimentary webinar. Email Associate Editor Karla Accorto at kaccorto@hcpro.com for more information or to RSVP.

HCPro is currently seeking speakers to present at the 2020 Credentialing Resource Center Symposium, to be held April 20-21 in New Orleans. Click here to apply!

A new survey revealed that the number of physicians who self-report telemedicine as a skill has increased by approximately 20% per year from 2015 to 2018. This increase is in line with current growth in telemedicine use; the number of patient telehealth visits has increased annually by 261% between 2015 and 2017. Furthermore, according to the AMA, 15% of physicians have utilized telemedicine in clinical settings, such as diagnosing and/or treating patients.