The Consortium for Universal Healthcare Credentialing (C4UHC) yesterday announced the publication of ANSI/NEMA SC1-2019 American National Standard for Supplier Credentialing in Healthcare by the National Electrical Manufacturer Association (NEMA), a standards development organization.
C4UHC Members, working with NEMA, formed a Canvas Group of healthcare stakeholders to successfully develop the new standard and gain approval from American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The Canvas Group contains more than 45 healthcare suppliers, providers, and vendor credentialing organizations who observed the ANSI essential requirements of openness, balance, consensus, and due process.
“The NEMA/ANSI standard setting process insured all stakeholders were involved which provided a well-rounded approach to standards development through vetting, review and finalizing,” said C4UHC’s Jackie Beigh, Director of Category Management, Supply Chain at Avera Health who participated in the Canvas Group.
C4UHC’s new Consulting Director Dennis Orthman of Access Strategy Partners Inc., said “Standardization increases compliance, drives lower costs for care, ensures access to the best medical products for the patient, and mitigates risks to data privacy information. The Consortium was pleased to partner with NEMA for this development process.”
Currently, the U.S. health system’s total cost for supplier credentialing, with unstandardized and duplicative credentialing requirements, has been estimated at over $1 billion annually. The new ANSI standardized credentials for representatives, when adopted by hospitals and met by their suppliers, will help reduce cost while streamlining the process to ensure access for suppliers to continue to bring innovative products and services to providers. Adherence to the new standards by suppliers and vendor credentialing organizations (VCOs) will help protect the personal and sensitive information of a supplier’s employees.
With a strategic goal of increasing industry awareness and promoting standards adoption by all involved, C4UHC’s next steps also include expansion of a national registry pilot program, aligned with the ANSI Standards, which will allow access to validated credentials of supplier representatives.
“The development of American National Standard for Supplier Credentialing in Healthcare is an important step towards the goal of interoperability, which is critical to achieving accuracy, efficiencies, and elimination of waste in the credentialing process,” said Rhett Suhre, chair of the Canvas Group. “We are confident that we will see the same advancements in supplier credentialing that we have seen in other industries.”
ANSI/NEMA SC 1-2019 is available in hard copy and electronic download on the NEMA website or can be accessed via a link on the C4UHC web site www.C4UHC.org
