Synergy - May/June 2014 - 27

namss pass™ guide

NAMSS PASS™: Your Top Five
Questions Answered
By Andy Lock

H

ere are the answers to your
Top 5 questions about the
NAMSS PASS initiative.

1. What quality of care issue
does NAMSS PASS solve and why
is it so important to our industry?
A serious issue currently experienced by
medical services professionals (MSPs) all over
the country is the lack of full disclosure by
practitioner applicants regarding their affiliation
history. These "gaps" of affiliation can pose an
enormous risk to your patients, facility, and
community. NAMSS PASS will help identify
red flags by providing a complete history of
practitioners' affiliations as self-reported by
healthcare entities. This eliminates reliance
solely on the applicants' disclosures.
As MSPs, patient safety is our primary
responsibility. As the experts in
credentialing, we must establish industry
best practices to both promote quality care
and mitigate potential risks associated with
the practitioners we are considering for
credentialing and privileging. 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
cost-effective manner possible. NAMSS PASS
is an important new tool that helps us to
accomplish all of these goals and objectives.

2. What are the features and
benefits of NAMSS PASS?
* All facilities can contribute affiliation
information to the sharing source
database at no cost.
* All facilities can browse practitioners and
healthcare entities (HCE) at no cost.
* The NAMSS PASS system provides online
primary source affiliation verification
letters on your letterhead to outside
entities at no cost to you.

* MSP users can instantaneously obtain a
detailed practitioner's affiliation history for
all of the HCEs at which he or she has been
credentialed, as reported by those HCEs.
* MSP users can compare and contrast the
NAMSS PASS affiliation information with
the information provided on the
application form.
* MSP users can perform a quick "gap
analysis" regarding practitioners to
determine if any credentialing red flags
are present.
* MSP users can 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!

3. If NAMSS PASS is still in its
early phases, what benefit is there
for me to contribute data now?
Every facility that contributes data is
providing valuable gap analysis information
for MSPs across the country. Whether it's
500 or 5,000 entities contributing data, each
additional facility increases the value of the
database and increases patient safety across
the country. If even one of your practitioner's
affiliations is identified in NAMSS PASS
by an MSP that was not disclosed on an
application, it could potentially prevent an
incalculable cost in the future. Hundreds of
your MSP peers are already contributing to
the NAMSS PASS database for your benefit,
so join them in this initiative today.
Also, by using the free online printing feature
of your verification letters to outside entities,
you can save thousands of dollars in full-time
equivalent time, which can be used for more
important functions in your department.

4. What are the costs involved?
The basic service is free. Basic service
includes features to contribute affiliation
data, browse practitioners and facilities,
create unlimited user accounts from your
entity, and use of the online printing
feature of your verification letter to outside
querying entities. The cost to access
information from other facilities is based on
a subscription fee per active credentialed
practitioner per year, which can be as low
as $1.60 (over 1,000 active practitioners
on staff and assuming you are a NAMSS
member). Subscriptions include unlimited
access to gap analysis data and printing
of verification letters from other facilities.
There is also an option to purchase letter
credits, as needed.

5. How do I get started?
Visit the NAMSS website (www.NAMSS.org)
and click on the NAMSS PASS link. If you
are a NAMSS member, you can sign in with
your NAMSS account and password. If you
are not a NAMSS member, click on the
"Create Guest Account" link to create an
account. Follow the simple prompts. There
is no cost to create an account and browse
the information on NAMSS PASS. There are
many resources available on the NAMSS
PASS page that you can download and
distribute to anyone you feel would benefit
from knowing more about NAMSS PASS.

Andy Lock has more than 25
years of healthcare management
and healthcare informatics
experience, including practice
management, managed care
contracting, MSO development,
physician network development and credentialing,
and capitation management. He is the President
of medical informatics company WIN/Staff, Inc.,
and is currently the Executive Director of
NAMSS PASS.

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