FCVS is a trusted source for state medical boards. FSMB works to ensure that when Boards receive an FCVS profile, they are getting primary-source verified information they can trust.
One of the most important contributions FSMB make’s to improve the U.S. health care system is finding new ways to make data useful to state medical boards. One example of this is FSMB’s ever-innovating Federation Credentials Verifications Services (FCVS). Celebrating its 27th operational year in 2023, FCVS provides a permanent repository of primary-source verified credentials for physicians and physician assistants – saving time-consuming, duplicative efforts by medical boards. FCVS’s powerful technology infrastructure and a team of credentialing specialists makes possible the collection and storage of high-quality core credentials, ranging from physician identity to disciplinary history. Verifying credentials is an essential building block of medical regulation – and FSMB enhanced this core service with improvements to FCVS during the last year.
Credentialist Model Improves Cycle Times and Satisfaction
One key accomplishment in 2022 by the FCVS team was the group’s conversion to a full “Credentialist Model.” A single FCVS Credentialist now works on each FCVS profile from start to finish, vs. the previous approach that involved multiple staff members. By creating a single “touch point” with state medical boards, physicians, residency programs, hospitals and other entities involved in the credentialing process, FCVS was able to significantly tighten its workflow processes.
The result of the new model: improved cycle times and increased satisfaction from state medical boards. The Credentialist Model trimmed overall cycle time to complete profiles by a day-and-half from 2021, despite a simultaneous increase in FCVS’s application volume.
FCVS Continues to Improve Integration and Automation
FCVS continues to work on projects focused on improved integration and automation with its partners, including medical boards, medical schools, GME programs, and software vendors. In 2022, FCVS worked closely with medical boards in California, Maryland, New Mexico, and New York to tailor their new software updates and Application Programming Interface (API) technology to meet those boards’ specific needs.
In another important development, FCVS used enhanced technology to convert nearly all GME programs using FCVS to DocuSign, an electronic signature functionality that eliminates the need for physicians to sign and mail forms. This enhancement has allowed FCVS to deploy several robots to work – 24 hours a day – on comparing applicant and GME verifications, adding additional efficiencies to FCVS’s workflow processes.
FCVS’s Closed Residency Programs service maintains complete, digitally signed program files of the records of many residency programs that have closed, maintaining key information necessary for credentialing verification for state medical boards, employers, credentialing professionals, and others. There are nearly 60 programs and more than 200 specialties stored in FCVS’s closed program inventory. This service has recently transitioned to a digital collection format, away from the historic use of paper and the completion of unique verification requests. In 2022, FCVS processed more than 850 secure digital closed program verifications for physicians, who use this valuable, portable verification for employment or privileging.
