Synergy - January/February 2013 - 20

namss focus

NAMSS PASS™ Is Now Available
By Connie Riedel, BS, CPMSM, CPCS, Linda Waldorf, BS, CPMSM, CPCS, and Paul Verardi, Esq.

A

s medical staff professionals, patient
safety is our primary responsibility. As
the experts in credentialing, we must
establish industry best practices to promote
quality care and mitigate potential risks
associated with the practitioners we are
considering for credentials. At the same time,
given the economic climate facing all of our
institutions, we must also use our expertise to
perform our patient safety responsibilities in the
most efficient and effective manner possible.
In the last issue of SYNERGY, we introduced
NAMSS PASS™, which stands for
“Practitioner Affiliation Sharing Source.”
NAMSS PASS™ is a secure, online database
that provides you with quick, easy and
inexpensive access to the affiliation history
for the practitioners you credential.
With your help and support, it will be a
comprehensive, centralized, primary-source
database. It will contain practitioners’
affiliation history with hospitals, surgery

What You Need to Know about
NAMSS PASS™:
1.	 It’s easy to use! It is a very
straightforward, intuitive tool that promotes
efficiency and effectiveness.
2.	 There is no software to install and your
data can be uploaded with a simple Excel
spreadsheet.
3.	 Once up and running, a NAMSS PASS™
subscriber will be able to quickly and easily
do all of the following:
•	 Instantly obtain a practitioner’s affiliation
history for all of the healthcare entities
where he or she has been credentialed,
as reported by those healthcare entities;
•	 Compare and contrast the NAMSS PASS™
affiliation information with the information
provided on the application form;

NAMSS PASS™ is a secure, online database
that provides you with quick, easy and
inexpensive access to the affiliation history for
the practitioners you credential.
centers, health plans, group medical
practices and other healthcare entities
(HCEs) for the entirety of the practitioners’
careers — all available with the click of a
mouse. NAMSS PASS™ was created through
the collaborative efforts of NAMSS and the
Practitioner Hospital Data Bank (PHDB).
We are pleased to announce that NAMSS
PASS™ is now available to all MSPs via
the NAMSS website (www.namss.org/
NAMSSPASS). And for 2013, contributing
entities (healthcare entities that upload their
practitioner data) will have access to a major
feature of this tool — gap analysis for all
applicants — absolutely free!

20

/

SYNERGY january/febr uary 2013

•	 Perform a quick “gap analysis” regarding
practitioners to determine if any
credentialing red flags are present; and
•	 Immediately print “good standing” letters
from any one of the contributing
hospitals, if a letter for that practitioner is
available. This means no more faxing or
mailing requests to individual affiliations,
no more waiting for responses to be
returned, and no need for second and
third requests for verification!

What Your Administrators and
CMOs Need to Know about
NAMSS PASS™:
•	 Gap analysis for contributing entities is
free in 2013.
•	 There are other significant cost savings for
NAMSS members and entities that support
this initiative by contributing data.
•	 NAMSS PASS™ offers a safe and secure
way to share affiliation history —
something your facility is already doing.
We’ve just streamlined it and made it
much easier.
•	 Contributing entities will have the ability
to choose one of two good standing
letters, both of which are based in large
part on the well-known federal Health
Care Quality Improvement Act. These
letters will finally help provide our
industry with a common definition and
understanding of what is intended by the
words “good standing.”
•	 Although The Joint Commission does not
require verification of a practitioner’s
affiliation history, and some other
consultants agree with this stance, we
know that this is a fundamental step in the
credentialing process and is essential to
patient safety. It has become an industry
best practice and is an integral piece to
mitigating potential legal risks associated
with negligent credentialing claims.
•	 Additional information, including the two
good standing letter options and a
comprehensive FAQs document, can be
found online at www.namss.org/
NAMSSPASS.
To achieve our goal of instantly and easily
obtaining practitioners’ affiliation history
for all of the healthcare entities where they
have been credentialed during their careers,
it will take the participation of the full MSP
community. Be a leader in your institution
and a leader in your profession, and join
today! Together, we can do great things. ■
http://www.namss.org/NAMSSPASS/tabid/425/Default.aspx http://www.namss.org/NAMSSPASS/tabid/425/Default.aspx http://www.namss.org/NAMSSPASS http://www.namss.org/NAMSSPASS http://www.namss.org/NAMSSPASS
Synergy - January/February 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Synergy - January/February 2013
