Start the Credentialing Process ASAP

If you are starting a practice where you are going to be seeing patients with private insurance it is important to start the provider credentialing process as soon as possible. The process for a new provider to be credentialed can take up to 6 months in some circumstances. You don’t want to get yourself into a situation where you open your doors on day one and you aren’t able to bill for any of the services you are providing because you are not credentialed with these payers.

Some payers move faster than others in terms of how quickly you will be welcomed into their network and other payers like Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) will require a multistep process to be brought into their network. If you are in a specialty where this my not apply as much, focus on those private payers where the majority of your billing will be.

As a general rule, as soon as you have a physical location (which you will need for your insurance applications) the next step will be to start getting in network even if you don’t plan on opening for a few months this way as soon as you start seeing patients you can start billing on Day 1.