As a member of the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS), you know the value of Medical Services Professionals (MSPs) and NAMSS. To help you share your enthusiasm with your colleagues and future MSPs, we’ve created a toolkit of materials to introduce the industry and the association. Each of these resources can be downloaded and saved to your computer for future use.
Sample Communications
To potential MSPs - MSP Profession Recommendation:
Dear [Recipient's Name],
I am writing to share with you an exciting and rewarding career path that I believe aligns perfectly with your skills and aspirations – the profession of a Medical Services Professional (MSP).
An MSP is a healthcare industry professional who plays a critical role as the gatekeeper of patient safety within healthcare organizations. It involves the management of healthcare providers, such as physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, to ensure that they meet the necessary qualifications and adhere to rigorous standards and regulations. Here are some compelling reasons why you should consider pursuing a career as an MSP:
Impact on Healthcare Quality: As an MSP, you will play a crucial role in upholding the quality and safety of patient care. By meticulously verifying the qualifications of healthcare providers and overseeing peer review processes, you will contribute to maintaining high standards in healthcare delivery.
Attention to Detail: If you have a keen eye for detail and a strong commitment to accuracy, the MSP profession will harness your skills to ensure that healthcare providers meet stringent credentialing and privileging requirements.
Ethical Responsibility: MSPs are entrusted with maintaining the highest ethical standards. Your role will include safeguarding patient information, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, and upholding confidentiality.
Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication is at the heart of the MSP role. You will collaborate with medical staff, administration, legal teams, and external stakeholders, fostering positive working relationships and maintaining open lines of communication.
Ongoing Learning: The field of healthcare is ever-evolving. As an MSP, you will have the opportunity for continuous learning and professional development. You'll stay informed about industry changes, best practices, and new regulations, ensuring your career remains engaging and dynamic.
Growing Career Field: The demand for qualified MSPs continues to grow. With an aging population and a complex healthcare landscape, the profession offers stability and long-term career prospects.
If you are seeking a career that combines your attention to detail, ethical values, and a commitment to healthcare quality, the MSP profession is an excellent fit. It offers the chance to make a meaningful impact on patient care and the healthcare industry as a whole. I encourage you to explore this rewarding profession further and consider the opportunities it may present. Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this further, please feel free to reach out to me at [Your Email Address] or [Your Phone Number]. I would be delighted to provide more information and guidance as you contemplate this career path.
Thank you for considering the exciting and fulfilling field of Medical Staff Professional. I am confident that you have the qualities and drive to excel in this role and make a significant contribution to healthcare. Wishing you the very best in your future endeavors.
Sincerely, [Your Name]
To your social media network:
A Medical Services Professional (MSP) is a healthcare industry professional who plays a critical role as the gatekeeper of patient safety within healthcare organizations. MSPs work in various healthcare settings, including hospitals, medical centers, ambulatory care facilities, and other healthcare organizations.
The primary responsibilities of an MSP typically revolve around credentialing, privileging, and ensuring that healthcare providers, including physicians, advanced practice professionals (e.g., nurse practitioners and physician assistants), and sometimes other healthcare practitioners, meet the necessary qualifications and adhere to the organization's standards and regulatory requirements. Here are some core key aspects of the MSP role:
- Credentialing: MSPs are responsible for verifying the professional qualifications, education, training, licensure, certifications, and experience of healthcare providers seeking privileges to work within a healthcare organization. This includes performing background checks, reviewing references, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
- Privileging: After credentialing, MSPs assist in the process of granting clinical privileges to healthcare providers, specifying the scope and nature of the services they are allowed to provide within the organization. Privileging is often tailored to the provider's clinical competence and experience.
- Managing Provider Enrollment Processes: MSPs maintain provider enrollment information within the credentialing database and pull reports for hospital administration, marketing, professional billing staff, and clinic directors/managers as needed. The MSP's play a vital role not only in the credentialing process, but also in the revenue cycle process to ensure payments from the Health plans/payers are accurate and timely.
- Peer Review: MSPs are involved in peer review processes, which are essential for assessing the ongoing competence and quality of care provided by healthcare providers. This involves monitoring and evaluating clinical performance, conducting investigations, and making recommendations for corrective actions when necessary.
- Regulatory Compliance: MSPs ensure that the healthcare organization complies with all relevant federal, state, and accrediting body regulations and standards related to credentialing, privileging, and peer review.
- Policy and Procedure Development: MSPs often participate in the development and maintenance of policies, procedures, and bylaws related to medical staff services, credentialing, privileging, and peer review within the healthcare organization.
- Communication: Effective communication is a vital part of the MSP role. They need to liaise with various stakeholders, including medical staff, administration, legal teams, and external regulatory agencies.
- Quality Improvement: MSPs contribute to the ongoing quality improvement efforts within the healthcare organization by identifying areas for improvement, conducting root cause analyses, and implementing corrective actions.
MSPs serve as a bridge between healthcare providers and the organization, ensuring that providers are qualified and maintain high standards of care. They are crucial in maintaining patient safety and ensuring that healthcare organizations meet regulatory and accreditation requirements. The MSP profession requires attention to detail, knowledge of healthcare regulations, strong organizational skills, and effective communication abilities.
Key regulatory bodies and Accreditation Standards play a significant role in ensuring that healthcare organizations and their Medical Services Professionals (MSPs) maintain high standards of quality, safety, and compliance. Here are some of the primary regulatory bodies and accreditation standards relevant to MSPs:
Accreditation Body: The Joint Commission is one of the most widely recognized accrediting organizations in the healthcare industry.
Role in MSP: It sets standards for medical staff credentialing, privileging, and peer review, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and industry best practices. MSPs play a crucial role in helping healthcare organizations meet The Joint Commission's standards.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):
Regulatory Body: CMS is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responsible for administering the nation's major healthcare programs.
Role in MSP: CMS sets regulations and conditions of participation for hospitals, which include requirements for medical staff credentialing and privileging. Compliance with CMS standards is crucial for healthcare organizations to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.
- National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA):
Accreditation Body: NCQA is a non-profit organization that provides accreditation and certification programs for managed care organizations and health plans.
Role in MSP: NCQA standards focus on ensuring that health plans and provider networks have rigorous credentialing and recredentialing processes in place, which often involves collaboration with MSPs.
- Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC):
Accreditation Body: URAC is a non-profit organization that offers accreditation, certification, and measurement programs for various healthcare sectors.
Role in MSP: URAC accreditation standards often include requirements related to credentialing and privileging, particularly in health plans and provider networks.
- Det Norske Veritas (DNV):
Accreditation Body: DNV Healthcare provides accreditation services to various healthcare organizations, including hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, and other healthcare providers.
Role in MSP: MSPs ensure compliance with DNV's quality and safety requirements, maintain quality management principles, and facilitate continuous improvement in medical staff services.
- State Regulatory Agencies:
Regulatory Body: Each U.S. state has its own regulatory agency responsible for healthcare oversight and licensure.
Role in MSP: State regulatory agencies establish rules and regulations related to medical staff services, credentialing, and privileging, which may vary from state to state. MSPs need to be aware of and comply with these state-specific requirements.
MSPs are responsible for understanding, implementing, and ensuring compliance with the standards and regulations established by these bodies. They help healthcare organizations meet these requirements by maintaining rigorous credentialing, privileging, and peer review processes, and by continuously monitoring and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Compliance with these standards is critical for the accreditation and reimbursement of healthcare organizations and the safety of patient care.
The National Association of Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) is committed to enhancing the professional development of and recognition for professionals in the medical staff and credentialing services field. The medical services profession has evolved over the past 41 years to where we are today - a true profession that spans a wide range of employment settings and requires a specific knowledge base and professional competencies. The NAMSS membership includes more than 6,000 medical staff and credentialing services professionals from medical group practices, hospitals, managed care organizations, and CVOs. NAMSS is proud to provide educational and career resources that help MSPs advocate for their role within their organization and the healthcare industry as a whole.
Don't Know Where to Start? NAMSS Can Help!
NAMSS believes in the longevity, importance, and relevance of the MSP profession and pledges to assist MSPs in future-proofing their careers with more competencies, more resources, more networking opportunities, and more ways to learn. NAMSS offers an array of indispensable resources tailored to support and guide MSPs in their professional development. Here are a few that can aid you as you're getting started.
New to the MSP Profession? Do you find yourself navigating through a maze of terminology and acronyms? The NAMSS Glossary of Terms is your ultimate resource for unraveling the intricacies of this vital profession.
The NAMSS Interactive Glossary is the comprehensive listing of more than 300 terms, definitions and organizational acronyms that are fundamental to those working in the medical staff services profession. This easily accessible reference is available both online and as a downloadable PDF. Want to learn more? Check out the NAMSS Glossary of Terms today and take the first step toward mastering the language of medical services professionals! Available for purchase in the NAMSS Education Zone.
Healthcare accreditation standards are constantly evolving. Stay current with changing standards on the 2023 NAMSS COMPARISON OF ACCREDITATION STANDARDS. This electronic reference tool provides “plain-language” interpretations of the credentialing standards for The Joint Commission, NCQA, Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program, DNV, URAC, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, as well as the Medicare Conditions of Participation. This product includes updates that will be made by NAMSS over the next 12 months. Available for purchase in the NAMSS Education Zone.
This two-and-a-half week, live interactive course will present the foundational elements of credentialing in an acute care (hospital) setting with a primary focus on the CMS regulatory standards and The Joint Commission accreditation standards, as well as how and when to apply them. Credentialing 101 is a must-attend for anyone new to the field and is an excellent refresher for current MSPs who want to enhance their knowledge of credentialing. Participants will work through a series of online modules supplemented with five live sessions facilitated by experienced NAMSS speakers. To learn more about Credentialing 101 visit the NAMSS Education Zone.
Designed for medical services professionals (MSP) who are new to the profession, this on-demand online course explores how the MSP role has evolved in recent years. Participants will examine their responsibilities from numerous points of view in medical settings, pinpointing the challenges, opportunities, and key issues involved in the job.
Upon completing MSP Roles and Responsibilities, MSPs will learn how to clearly articulate who they are and how their work impacts the medical environment. MSP Roles and Responsibilities explores the natural synergies of CVOs, hospitals, and managed care organizations. Participants will examine how each player interacts, defining the roles, partnerships, and possible conflicts that may arise. To learn more about MSP Roles and Responsibilities visit the NAMSS Education Zone.
The NAMSS Career Center is your destination for professional growth and advancement in the field of medical services professionals. Whether you're just starting your journey in healthcare administration and credentialing or transitioning into a new role, our career center offers tailored support and resources to help you thrive.
Additional Resources
Interested in a NAMSS Membership?
NAMSS is the #1 primary source of education for the medical services profession.
The NAMSS certification program establishes industry standards and serves as a comprehensive measure of knowledge in the field.
The Certified Provider Credentialing Specialist (CPCS®) is typically employed or contracted by a healthcare organization including, but not limited to, hospitals (health systems), health plans, ambulatory care settings, group practices, and credentialing verification organizations.
A CPCS is an integral part of a credentialing team whose responsibilities include:
- Maintaining compliance with regulatory and accrediting bodies;
- Participating in the development and implementation of credentialing processes and procedures;
- Credentialing of physicians, allied health and other practitioners;
- Overseeing or participating in the development of and adherence to:
- governance bylaws;
- department rules and regulations;
- policies pertaining to medical staff, practitioner/provider, and the organization
- Collecting and maintaining an accurate practitioner database and analyzing verification information
The Certified Professional Medical Services Management (CPMSM®) is typically employed or contracted by a healthcare organization including, but not limited to, hospitals (health systems), health plans, ambulatory care settings, group practices or credentialing verification organizations.
A CPMSM is an integral part of a credentialing team whose responsibilities include:
- Maintaining compliance with regulatory and accrediting bodies;
- Developing and implementing credentialing/privileging processes and procedures;
- Developing and implementing provider enrollment processes and procedures;
- Overseeing development of and adherence to:
- governance bylaws;
- department rules and regulations; and
- policies pertaining to medical staff, practitioner/provider, and the organization
Tomorrow's MSP® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a service mark of National Association Medical Staff Services.