On May 26, 2010, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued proposed changes simplifying the credentialing process of practitioners providing telemedicine services. Currently, the originating hospital is responsible for credentialing and privileging each practitioner that provides telemedicine services at their hospital. Under the new rule, the originating hospital can rely on the credentialing and privileging decisions of the distant-site hospital.

Certain criteria must still be met under this proposed change, including:

• The distant-site must be a Medicare participating hospital.
• The practitioner must be privileged at the distant-site.  
• The distant-site must provide a current listing of the practitioner's privileges.
• The practitioner must be licensed or recognized by the state in which the telemedicine services are being received.
• The originating hospital must perform a periodic appraisal of the physician, including a review of any adverse events and complaints, and send this appraisal to the distant-site.  

These changes stand to greatly benefit rural and critical-access hospitals that may take advantage of telemedicine services more frequently and lack access to highly-specialized practitioners. For all hospitals involved, these changes will reduce the burdensome and duplicate credentialing process while still maintaining a regulated, accountable process.  

Further detail of this proposed change is available here.