Last year’s Q1 Perspectives article by Samantha Greenberg and Emily Boothe highlighted NSGC’s Access and Service Delivery (ASD) Committee’s journey to understand and educate others about credentialing for genetic counselors. The committee’s efforts have continued with the ASD Committee’s new Coding and Credentialing Workgroup. This year, we are excited to add more resources to help genetic counselors navigate the credentialing process from start to finish, including a CEU-eligible online course developed in partnership with the NSGC Education Committee.
Credentialing is the process of verifying a healthcare practitioner’s qualifications, such as education, certification, and work experience. There are two types of credentialing commonly performed by both healthcare institutions and payers. Institutional credentialing, typically managed by an institution’s human resources department or medical staff office, helps to protect patients by ensuring they will receive high quality services. Payer credentialing is a process mediated by individual health insurance companies, meant to ensure practitioners are qualified to enter the payer’s network. Potential benefits to genetic counselors who become credentialed by their institution and/or payers include improved reimbursement and protection from liability. Ultimately, credentialing moves genetic counselors towards greater recognition as highly qualified healthcare practitioners and fair reimbursement for services.
Credentialing can require a lot of paperwork and no small amount of persistence, especially when the institution or payer in question has not previously credentialed genetic counselors. Fortunately, NSGC’s new online course, “Credentialing: How and Why?”, features credentialing and medical staffing subject-matter experts who provide insight on how to complete the process efficiently and avoid common pitfalls. The course also includes stories from genetic counselors who have successfully obtained credentialing. Whether you are simply curious about credentialing or you are ready to take a deeper dive, the course likely has information for you. It is arranged in a “microburst” format, allowing viewers to skip directly to the most relevant content, in 15-25-minute segments, or to watch from start to finish. The course has been approved by the NSGC for 3.25 contact hours or 0.32 Category 1 CEUs. A free version is also available for those not seeking CEUs.
In addition to the online course, the Coding and Credentialing Workgroup has developed several Credentialing Resources. We hope these resources will be useful as you embark on your own credentialing journey.
Margaret Emmet, MS, CGC is a licensed, certified genetic counselor at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Cancer Risk Assessment, and Co-Lead of the NSGC Access and Service Delivery Committee’s Coding and Credentialing Workgroup.