What is CVO?

If you ask any healthcare providers what they hate about their job, most of them will likely mention credentialing. This is a common procedure within the medical field, where a hospital or clinic needs to check new employees’ credentials before allowing them to perform their jobs.

The issue with this process is that it’s mostly done in-house, by clinics’ or hospitals’ staff. This is especially true for smaller organizations that don’t have the money to create a specialized department. Practitioners are pulled from their daily duties to perform the task, something that many hate.

Overall, most medical organizations don’t have the means or knowledge to properly execute the process internally. This is why they often delegate the process to third-party organizations, known as CVOs (Credentials Verification Organizations). With their help, this annoying procedure can be expedited to everyone’s delight.

How do CVOs work?

The biggest issue with credentialing is that it takes too much time. The process usually requires several months, during which a hospital needs to cover practitioners’ paychecks. Not only does this affect the organization’s bottom line, but it also reduces the number of employees in the office.

This is where CVO comes into play. These professionals have well-designed internal processes and rely on advanced software to streamline the credentialing process. As someone who’s fully dedicated to the procedure, their only task is to ensure quick onboarding. Here are a few ways a medical organization can benefit from these external providers:

• Faster filling and use of real-time data-driven insights
• Predicting and filling staff gaps before they happen
• Making providers available faster and reducing stakeholder dissatisfaction
• Better patient satisfaction
• Improving tracking of claims and penalties
• Reducing human error

While medical providers generally have well-designed billing procedures, they usually do a poor job with onboarding. As mentioned, many organizations don’t have internal teams, or they don’t use sophisticated software for tracking changes. In fact, there are still many clinics that perform analog credentialing, which is the last thing you want.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that all healthcare providers are open to the idea of hiring CVOs. Although these providers aren’t that expensive, medical organizations are generally timid when outsourcing sensitive internal operations. However, when you consider how much it would cost you to credential practitioners by yourself, it makes sense to outsource the activity.

CVOs such as Andros can be a great solution for your healthcare business. With these providers, you can eliminate tasks that were, for the longest time, a pain in your backside. 

Internal or external credentialing?

Truth be told, major hospitals and medical organizations can efficiently perform credentialing in-house as long as they dedicate themselves to the process. Then again, many of them choose not to do so as it would take too much time and micromanagement.

The good thing about internal credentialing is that you would have much more oversight. You can create a smaller or larger team based on your employee turnover. Furthermore, you can decide which software to use and how to streamline different tasks. Having an internal team might even pay off in the longer run, although it will require a hefty initial investment.

Then again, most external credentialing contracts are devised to fulfill your specific needs. You can usually negotiate the price, quantity of work, and even software being used. In other words, you can create a similar, customized process as you would have in-house.

4 Tips for hiring CVOs

The great thing about CVOs is that they provide a plug-and-play solution for your medical business, making them ideal for new healthcare organizations. Sometimes, as intimidating as credentialing can be managed by an experienced external team, allowing you to focus on fulfilling operational goals.

Here’s what healthcare institutions have to take into account when looking for their next provider:

1. Like in other industries, the search for external providers starts by reading online reviews and authoritative blogs. You can learn a lot about an organization by simply going through articles and Google rating
2. Due to the nature of credentialing, you need to find a provider that can create a customized solution. During the initial call, you need to explain your basic needs and ask the provider how they’re looking to solve them
3. Provider should be flexible when it comes to staff, budgeting, and technology. Make sure that their solution doesn’t make too big of a dent in your budget
4. Depending on your needs, you might need someone to provide continuous support or to perform short-term onboarding

Keep in mind that many CVOs charge their clients based on the number of applications. So, even if you use a complex onboarding process, a provider is responsible for executing the process from the start to the end. This is especially great for smaller clinics that rarely hire new employees, as well as those who have a meticulous credentialing process.