A quarterly review of Company and industry news for Medical Mutual member-policyholders.
About Us » Publications & Announcements
The Advocate
Archive
Synernet Partnership Promises Streamlined Application Process
"This first-ever program of
its kind has the potential
to be an important new
business tool for us,
as well as a valuable tool
for both our insureds
and potential insureds."
— John Doyle, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Communications
Hospitals and organizations required to
verify the credentials of physicians and
other healthcare providers must gather
thorough information on each provider’s
background including: education, employment
and claims histories. Coincidentally,
those same institutions, when applying for
medical professional liability insurance
policies, must submit thorough information
on each of its employed provider’s
background including: education, employment
and claims histories.
Soon, thanks to a recently-signed partnership
between Medical Mutual and
Synernet, a provider of outsourced
administrative services to healthcare
organizations, much of that redundancy
can be eliminated for institutions and
organizations that access Synernet’s
Credentialing Verification Service.
Service will pre-populate 75 percent or more of insurance application
Under the terms of the agreement,
Synernet Credentialing clients who wish
to apply for medical professional liability
insurance with Medical Mutual can provide
their permission to release the information
from their credentialing
files required for underwriting
purposes. Once an applicantprovider
grants his or her permission,
Synernet will
pre-populate what the two
companies estimate to be 75
percent or more of the information
required on the insurance
application. The applicant
will then be able to finish the
application online, or print out
the pre-populated forms and
finish it by hand.
Either way, the service
promises significant time savings
for institution-wide applications.
But it also will be
available when an organization
hires a new provider and needs
to secure coverage specific to him or her,
according to Gerry Vicenzi, FACHE,
President and CEO of Synernet.
"If we’re already working that institution,
they’ll be making the call to us to
verify their potential hire’s new credentials
anyway. So the provider will just need to
visit either the Medical Mutual or
Synernet web site for a link to authorize
the release of that information. The bottom
line is that we free up a significant
amount of somebody’s time at the hospital
by verifying the credentials on an outsourced
basis in the first place. Then we
save them time again when it comes to
securing liability coverage," said Vicenzi.
Removing an impediment from new applications
For Medical Mutual, too, a streamlined
application process is only part of the benefit,
said John Doyle, Vice President of
Marketing & Corporate Communications.
"We continue to have tremendous
interest in our products and services from
physician groups and hospitals that we
don’t insure in all three states. For us to be
able to provide the best possible program
structure at a competitive rate, we need
completed applications. Unfortunately, for
large groups and hospitals that means completing
20, 30, 50 even 150 applications.
You can see the amount of time and
resources it would take to complete a proper
submission. As long as the providers are
clients of Synernet, the barriers for us to
move forward to quote will have been
completely removed. I’m very excited
about this first-ever program of its kind.
It has the potential to be an important
new business tool for us, as well as a valuable
tool for both our insureds and
potential insureds." said Doyle.
Portland-based Synernet currently provides Credentialing Services for hospitals
in Maine and Massachusetts. And Vicenzi
says his company is poised for growth
throughout Northern New England.
"This is a core competency for us that can
be conducted for any institution, regardless
of their location. It’s a data gathering
function for which we have the people
and systems in place to track it down,
then verify, centralize and share it very
efficiently. This partnership leverages that
for everybody’s benefit," he said.
The two companies formalized the
partnership agreement in early March
and plan to begin offering the streamlined
service to its joint accounts — both
current and prospective — this spring.