CMS announces streamlined telemedicine credentialing and privileging standards

Hospitals and critical access hospitals that offer services through a telemedicine provider can now rely on the credentialing decisions of the distant site, according to a press release issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on May 2. The decision was made in light of the struggles that small, rural hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAH) have credentialing and privileging telemedicine providers given their limited resources.

According to the CMS press release: “A hospital or CAH that furnishes telemedicine services to its patients via an agreement with a ‘distant’ hospital or telemedicine entity may now rely upon information furnished by the distant hospital (often a larger medical center) or telemedicine entity when making credentialing and privileging decisions for the physicians and practitioners at the distant site that will furnish the services.”