News
Here you will find articles about important developments in the field of surgery.
Credentialing Contracting Impedes Patients Access to Physicians
The health insurance industry in Arizona has made the credentialing and contracting process for physicians unnecessarily lengthy and onerous. Applications which used to take 60 days to process now routinely take six months to process and often extend to nine months or even a year. These practices contribute to Arizona's significant physician shortage by denying access to care for patients, penalizing them for going "out of network" for their care, and impeding the physician's ability to generate income and earn a living.
The lack of transparency and collaboration from the insurance companies, as well as their rigid, redundant and wasteful processes intentionally slows the process to their economic advantage. We are not talking about exceptionally complex situations or foreign trained doctors. We are talking about physicians who have been trained in the US and who have been fully vetted and source verified repeatedly for their training, education, and work history. By the time they seek contracted status with an insurance company; they have been licensed or credentialed by the following entities:
- Arizona Medical Board - Granted a medical license following a background check by the Department of Public Safety.
- DEA license - Granted privileges to prescribe drugs including narcotics by another federal law enforcement agency.
- Malpractice certificate - Confirmed and granted professional liability insurance.
- Hospital privileges - Confirmed and admitted to the professional staff.
We are asking for your support to require insurance companies that sell policies in Arizona to credential and load physicians into all relevant networks within 90 calendar days and that all related web-based provider-verification/authentication tools supported by said company are updated to reflect same allowing patients to be seen on day 91 if they have: A license to practice medicine in the state of Arizona DEA license to prescribe drugs in Arizona certificate of professional liability insurance from an insurance carrier licensed to sell insurance in the State of Arizona. Admission to the professional staff of a hospital licensed in the State of Arizona.
Please click here to sign this petition to show your support for this common sense initiative.
Minimally Invasive Surgery: "The Greatest Revolution In Surgical Practice Since The 1950s"