The increasing trend toward direct employment of physicians by hospitals may seem to be shifting power from physicians to hospitals; however, in the words of Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, “it ain’t over till it’s over.”

A Moody’s report on hospital financial trends pointed out that while physician employment can be an effective strategy for revenue growth, it can also result in lowering operating margins, and as a result, hospital creditworthiness.

A poll of more than 350 physicians found that many of them provided patients with some lifestyle change recommendations to reduce the risk for disease but didn’t believe patients actually followed their advice.

Most hospitals have one or more exclusive contracts with members of the medical staff to ensure round-the-clock coverage for a particular service. Physicians who find themselves ineligible to hold certain privileges as a result of an exclusive arrangement may sue the hospital. Therefore, medical staff bylaws must address what hearing rights, if any, the hospital offers members who are affected by the initiation or ongoing existence of an exclusive contract.

Today, many hospitals employ physicians, so a physician’s ability to provide medical care may also be dictated by an employment contract—handled by administration and the hospital’s human resources department—in addition to clinical privileges, which are recommended by the medical executive committee and granted by the governing body. So what if, administration terminated a physician’s employment before a medical staff investigation was initiated? Wouldn’t that be reportable to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), too, especially if the loss of employment automatically resulted in a loss of privileges?

This week, the Credentialing Resource Center (CRC) is celebrating the 2018 class of CRC Contest winners. These professionals leverage their deep expertise across a broad range of medical staff services and leadership functions, have a penchant for productive interdisciplinary collaboration, and demonstrate unwavering passion for their important work.

In honor of this clear commitment to industry excellence, we’re granting all CRC Daily readers and CRC site visitors access to exclusive members-only content about the 2018 CRC Contest winners.

Like most who go into medical staff services, Cassie L. Kana, CPMSM, CPCS, didn’t know what the field entailed until she got into it. But it didn’t take her long to realize that she had found the right career.

“I did not know that I’d been nominated,” confesses John McDonald, MD, MSHM, CMQ, referring to his win as the 2018 Credentialing Resource Center Medical Staff Leader of the Year.

How do you transition to a paperless credentialing process that enables document sharing throughout your health system, thus reducing rework, waste, and redundancy? How do you leverage your credentialing database to resolve data needs that are beyond the scope of credentialing to strengthen your system’s high-quality patient care?

The third largest health system in the United States, Providence St. Joseph Health System struggled with an issue common among health systems: how to bring together disparate data and develop one source of truth for provider data.

Let us know which department in your organization performs payer enrollment tasks. You must be signed in with your free or paid CRC account to participate.

Looking to improve enrollment turnaround time and reduce lost revenue and credentialing delays? Sign up for our next provider enrollment webinars about attaining delegation status with commercial payers! For more information, click here.

Writing books/columns and speaking on webinars and at seminars are great ways to share your industry knowledge with peers. With the guidance of a solid publishing company, you’ll see your thoughts and tips become beacons to others in your field. We’re always looking for new authors, speakers, and reviewers. For more than 20 years, HCPro has been a leading provider of integrated healthcare information, education, training, and consulting products. Among HCPro’s need-to-know information products are a vast array of books, newsletters, websites, annual webinars, and annual live events.