Vendor Credentialing

Sentara's partner for vendor credentialing is Green Security.

Registration Directions

What is the purpose of Green Security, why use a credentialing program?

Financial

• Mitigate risk of fines and loss of funding. To document compliance with the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statutes.

Security

• Control vendor access and know who is walking in your halls. Using a program like this mitigates against HIPAA violations, provides for criminal background checks for those entering our facilities, ensuring only individuals known to the system have badged access to sensitive patient treatment areas.

Operations

• Reduce Cold Calls in our facility locations. Only credentialed sales representatives will have access to appointments, permission to be in our facilities, and access to providers for marketing and training. The credentialing database will ensure current vendor contact information is on file. This will enhance our ability to reach out to trusted partners, enable purchasing to verify vendors wishing to do business with Sentara Healthcare, and help us ensure compliance with ongoing exclusion list audits.

Reputation

 

• Impact vendor behavior in your facilities, Reduce access to patient information. 

• In the community Sentara is recognized as an organization that is concerned about the people we serve. To this end we need to ensure we have oriented all those partnering with us to provide care to our standards, expectations, and values. We need to ensure that our partners understand the measures we have in place to protect our patient's information; and that they are qualified for the services, products, and training they have been engaged to provide. 

Safety

 

• We need to keep our patients and employees safe in our facilities. This credentialing ensures that we know who is coming through the doors, that they do not have a criminal history which would preclude employment, that they have received or declined the vaccinations and immunizations which would make them subject to masking protocols, and that they understand the requirements of HIPAA. 

Operational Consideration

 

• We want to reduce the occurrence of cold calls and unscheduled appointments by vendor representatives. By controlling access, we enhance our ability to accomplish our primary mission of patient care. 

Financial

 

• Organizationally we want to ensure we comply with all the regulations governing funding. This includes constant monitoring of our partner vendors and individual vendor representatives to ensure they have not excluded or barred by any of the various regulatory agencies, committed or been charged with any crimes which would exclude them from conducting business with government or private insurance payers; and to ensure we are following the guidelines set governing relations with pharmaceutical and medical device representatives. 

What does credentialing include? 

 

• Verification of the Business, including verification of company information, federal and state sanctions. 

• Verification of the Representative, including documentation of training. Criminal background check, employment verification. 

• Credentialing of onsite Representatives including policy acknowledgements, orientation verification, annual health verification, immunization record, annual flu vaccination status. 

• Continuous Auditing to include monthly sanction list checks, monthly rep compliance emails, and on demand visit reporting. 

What are the Badging Rules?

 

• Vendors must have an appointment prior to arriving at any Sentara Location and all Credentialed Vendors are expected to prominently wear Green Security Badge.

• Vendors need to sign in at the designated place at each location. Our hospitals provide Green Security iPad Stations to facilitate sign in at all primary points of entrance.   After checking in an email alert is sent to leaders associated with the respective department. Other locations will require checking in at the reception area or front desk. 

• Some physician's practices and non-Hospital locations may allow vendors to check via the phone app. Vendor Representatives will need to wear Green Security ID badges in a prominent location for ease of identification. 

• Green Security monitors a robust database for sanctions, exclusions, and pending legal actions against both the companies and individual representatives. Should a company or individual be listed in any of these databases the corresponding credential will be revoked pending resolution. 

• The credentialing system does allow for an unregistered vendor to make an initial visit to a non-clinical area. If a second visit is attempted a badge will be denied.