All aboard the vendor credentialing train

Edition: June 2008 - Vol 17 Number 06
Article#: 2941
Author: Mark Thill

The issue of vendor credentialing continues to stir the supplier community. For suppliers, the issue presents two big problems. First, there are no standards as to what criteria a sales rep must meet in order to be credentialed. Yes, the Joint Commission is working on drawing up some standards, but to date, there are none. (And don't believe providers who tell you that they have engaged a vendor credentialing company in order to "comply with JCAHO requirements." There aren't any JCAHO requirements, at least at this point. That, by the way, is straight from the Joint Commission.) Without standards, suppliers have to comply with individual hospitals' unique requests, and that's time-consuming and costly.

Second, vendor credentialing could be extremely costly to suppliers. As BSN Medical Vice President of National Accounts and Distributor Relations Carl Meyer points out, "The problem at this moment in time is that, similar to the early days of e-commerce in healthcare, there are a myriad of credentialing providers that have gone into business with the idea of being the next stock market darling to go public and mint money for the early investors." One model has vendors paying up to $250 per hospital (or IDN) to be credentialed. (The $250 rate is for reps calling on the OR and other reps who come into contact with patients.) Do the math and you'll see the potential impact on suppliers and, ultimately, providers. (Suppliers can't absorb costs like that without passing them on.)

There's no point in bellyaching, though. Vendor credentialing is going to happen. It already is happening. And most suppliers would concede that providers need some kind of assurance that the reps who call on them are qualified to do so - that they've been vaccinated, that they understand aseptic technique (if they call on the OR or other sterile areas), etc. But suppliers are also wary that vendor credentialing is morphing into vendor management - that is, a way to keep vendors out of hospitals. And they're worried that the Wild West environment out there now will kill them financially.

For now, providers seem unfazed by all the commotion from the supplier side. After all, they don't have to pay the vendor credentialing companies - suppliers do. But if suppliers pass on some of those costs, providers may begin to pay more attention.

So what's next? Carl Meyer suggests that representatives from all the major stakeholders - distributors, manufacturers, GPOs and providers - get together to try to draw up some standards. Others have suggested that some agency or authority act as a repository of current credentialing information for all the sales reps in the country, which providers could access via the Internet. (This could only work, however, if providers agreed on what criteria sales reps must meet in order to be credentialed. Presumably, the Joint Commission will see to this end of things.) This would keep the costs for suppliers at a minimum.

This train has left the station. Vendor credentialing is here. It's up to you to try to direct the direction it goes from this point on.