Credentialing & Privileging | 02.11.25
Update on NAMSS’ Ideal Credentialing Standards — February 2025
By Molly Ford
To commemorate its launch of the revised Ideal Credentialing Standards (ICS) one year ago, NAMSS is pleased to report on its impact to date, as well as announce a language update to ICS elements pertaining to health-status inquiries. Launched in January 2024, NAMSS’ revised ICS has had a big year. The ICS, which establishes best-practice guidance for initial-practitioner credentialing, underwent a year-long revision in 2023 to align with changes in credentialing for primary-source verification processes, as well as with telehealth and locum tenens practitioners.
The updated standards also recommend language for inquiring about an applicant’s health status, in alignment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Impact Wellbeing™ campaign. In developing this language, NAMSS worked with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation (DLBHF) and the American Medical Association (AMA) to help standardize guidance for appropriately inquiring about a practitioner’s health status.
The resulting revision aligned with the DLBHF’s Wellbeing First Champions Challenge to help healthcare systems and state licensure boards align health-status inquiries with the above recommendations. To date, more than 500 hospitals and 37 state licensure boards of medical, nursing, dental, and pharmacy have met the DLBHF’s Champions Challenge criteria for practitioner-wellness inquiries. NAMSS is pleased to be a part of the DLBHF’s efforts to safeguard the well-being of care workers while ensuring patient safety.
While NAMSS, the AMA, and the DLBHF stand by the ICS’ health-status language, all three organizations recognize that conflicting national requirements around health-status language may deter organizations from making meaningful changes to their applications. To help more MSPs, Provider Enrollment Professionals, and their organizations align with the ICS, NAMSS added the bolded language below to the ICS’ “Element 9: Health Status and Element 12: Peer and Professional References”:
Are you currently suffering from any condition for which you are not being appropriately treated that impairs your judgment or that would otherwise adversely affect your ability to practice medicine in a competent, ethical, and professional manner? (Yes/No)*
*While NAMSS, the American Medical Association, and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation recommend the above ICS language for inquiring about an applicant’s health status, these three organizations agree that it is permissible for healthcare entities to remove, if necessary, “…for which you are not being appropriately treated…,” to meet all existing standards.
NAMSS is pleased to see a growing interest in implementing all of the ICS recommendations at the organizational level and looks forward to working with the AMA, the DLBHF, and other industry partners to ensure best practices for practitioner credentialing and beyond. Please feel free to contact info@namss.org with questions pertaining to NAMSS’ ICS.