6 Reasons Healthcare Providers Avoid Point Solutions for Credentialing

Credentialing platforms are meant to simplify the credentialing process. Solutions range from an assortment of rigid point solutions to highly customized credentialing platforms that integrate seamlessly with other platforms, like recruiting tools, ERPs, EHRs, and marketing automation systems.

The big question healthcare providers face is whether to adopt a point solution or invest in building a custom credentialing platform. This blog will guide you through the decision-making process and highlight scenarios where Salesforce, with its workflow customization capabilities, may be the answer you’ve been searching for.

What Steps Are Involved in the Credentialing Process?

Before we dig into the platform options, it’s essential to understand the credentialing process itself. Credentialing goes beyond recruiting staff—it ensures you bring in qualified professionals and maintain compliance in a strict regulatory environment. Here’s a breakdown of the steps involved:

• Recruitment
  Finding the right candidates with the right skills to support profitable service lines.
• Application
  Collecting and reviewing all necessary physician documentation.
• Primary Source Verification (PSV)
  Validating education, licensing, and certifications.
• Committee Review
  Assessing provider qualifications and assigning clinical privileges.
• Privileging
  Assigning responsibilities based on expertise.
• Payer Enrollment
  Credentialing healthcare providers with insurers for billing and reimbursement.
• Ongoing Maintenance and Recredentialing
  Ensuring continuous compliance with licensing and regulatory requirements.

These steps require not only attention to detail but also substantial administrative power. The right platform can reduce the administrative burden and transform this complexity into a seamless process.

6 Reasons to Avoid Point Solutions

Custom credentialing platforms are an excellent option for organizations investing in long-term operational efficiencies while solving precise workflow challenges. Here's why large providers might opt for a custom credentialing platform over a point solution:

1. You Need Deep Integration with Existing Systems

A custom credentialing platform provides seamless integration if your healthcare organization uses platforms like Salesforce for CRM or patient management. Salesforce-powered solutions, in particular, ensure that credentialing becomes part of your core systems rather than existing as a separate function.

• Credentialing data integrates with other business insights, such as marketing, sales, and support.
• Salesforce APIs enable credentialing tools to work harmoniously with platforms like ERP, HRIS, or EMR systems, centralizing critical data.

Integration removes inefficiencies caused by isolated systems and eliminates the need for repetitive data entry across multiple platforms.

2. You Need Customization and Flexibility for Your Processes

No two healthcare providers operate the same way, which is why flexibility is critical. With a customized credentialing solution, you can design workflows tailored to your organization's business.

• Create automated, trackable rules for compliance alerts, approvals, or ongoing license management.
• Scale the platform as your organization grows, ensuring it evolves alongside your needs.
• Add modules or functionality (e.g., contract management tools or regional compliance tracking) as requirements change or expand.

Pre-built point solutions may meet generic needs, but they fall short when you need something more configurable and forward-looking.

3. You Need Centralized Data Management

Data silos are a significant frustration for healthcare providers. A custom credentialing platform eliminates this issue by offering centralized management where every data point is accessible in one place.

• All credentialing, licensing, and compliance documents are part of the same system.
• Centralization simplifies reporting, compliance tracking, and the availability of real-time metrics through tools like Einstein Analytics.

Whether you need proof of credentialing for compliance or insights to optimize processes, accessing this data becomes quicker and more efficient.

4. You Prioritize Cost-Effectiveness in the Long Run

Building a custom credentialing platform can have higher up-front costs, but they quickly pay themselves off over time...it’s a long-term investment. Cobbling together a collection of point solutions to handle applications, credentialing, verification, and other tasks comes at the cost of multiple licenses, high administrative overhead, and manual effort – death by 1,000 papercuts.

Purpose-built credentialing platforms:

• Avoid duplicating data efforts by leveraging integrated features.
• Reduce the need to maintain multiple platforms, lowering costs.
• Save employee hours spent juggling different systems.

When evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a credentialing platform, the reduced redundancies and enhanced efficiency of custom platforms make them an appealing choice for large healthcare organizations with complex credentialing needs.

5. You Need Enhanced Compliance and Security

Healthcare providers operate under strict regulatory and security standards to protect patient and provider data. With the proper configuration, Salesforce supports HIPAA, HITRUST, and SOC 2 compliance, offering advanced features like encryption, audit trails, and user-level permissions.

Automated tracking ensures critical compliance tasks—like certifications and licensing renewals—are never missed. Where point solutions are limited, custom platforms built on Salesforce go the extra mile to meet specific security and regulatory needs.

6. You Can Use Your Processes as a Competitive Advantage

Profit margins in the healthcare industry are razor-thin, making it essential to capitalize on opportunities for efficiency—especially in credentialing, where delays between each step significantly impact revenue.

For large providers, making credentialing processes more efficient often requires more than generic, off-the-shelf solutions. Custom credentialing tools enable organizations to integrate specialized workflows, personalized branding, and customized reporting that align precisely with their operations. By adapting to your processes, rather than forcing you to conform to theirs, custom solutions provide many advantages over healthcare systems relying on rigid, one-size-fits-all platforms.

When to Consider Salesforce Instead of Point Solutions

Choosing between Salesforce-based custom platforms and point solutions can be a tough call. To simplify, choose Salesforce when you need the following:

• Seamless integrations with existing systems like CRM, ERP, or EMR.
• Customization to meet your organization’s unique compliance or operational requirements.
• Scalability to grow with your business and accommodate future needs.
• Long-term financial efficiency compared to licensing multiple standalone solutions.

Credentialing point solutions may be fine for smaller providers with limited needs, budgets, or tech infrastructure. That said, as your healthcare organization grows, transitioning from point solutions to custom platforms often becomes inevitable to maintain a competitive edge.

Take the First Step Toward Credentialing Excellence

Streamlining the credentialing process is not just about saving time—it’s about patient safety, employee satisfaction, and maintaining a competitive edge.

A Salesforce-powered custom credentialing platform can address your integration, automation, and scalability needs. With centralized data management, improved compliance, and cost-effectiveness, it has proven to be an essential investment for many healthcare providers.

Whether a small clinic or a large hospital network, your credentialing platform shouldn’t hold you back. Get in touch with Penrod today to learn how a custom Salesforce solution can shape the future of your credentialing process.