Texas Children’s has many unsung heroes who keep our organization running behind the scenes in ways most of us can’t even imagine. One of those unsung heroes is the 17-member Centralized Credentialing Office team.
This team shoulders some heavy responsibilities that greatly impact the quality of care offered at Texas Children’s and the organization’s bottom line. For starters, the team helps determine what providers get to work at Texas Children’s by ensuring we issue privileges to the utmost experts in their field.
Researching and verifying a provider’s credentials before they are appointed to Texas Children’s Medical Staff and every few years after that is one of the team’s top priorities. Their research is viewed by Texas Children’s Credentialing Committee, Medical Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees.
“We care deeply about what we do and feel passionate about the people we are putting before our patients,” said Brandy Hebert, director of the Centralized Credentialing team. “We feel confident that the people chosen to provide care to our patients are the best.”
The Centralized Credentialing team also is in charge of managed care credentialing for all commercial providers and Medicare and Medicaid enrollment in 49 states. These enrollment processes have to be revalidated every three to five years.
“Not many people realize the details of what this department does, but I can tell you as a partner in Revenue Cycle, what they do is critical to our reimbursement,” said Kathleen Wood, director of business services for Texas Children’s Physician Service Organization. “I continue to be impressed by what this group of individuals does.”
The team’s efforts were recently recognized when they received a perfect score on their National Committee for Quality Assurance reaccreditation. They were also recognized as a best practice/best in class for the third consecutive year at Verity’s User Group Conference. Verity is the owner of the credentialing software the Centralized Credentialing Office team uses to do their jobs.
Dr. Mark Ward, chief of the Credentialing Committee, said he was excited to learn about the team’s reaccreditation score but was not surprised since the team always strives to do their best.
“Even though members of the Credentialing Committee thank them for their hard work often, it’s nice they got some recognition aside from us,” Ward said. “What they do is essential service to our organization.”
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently accredited Texas Children’s Hospital’s Centralized Credentialing Office.