Another dimension has been added to credentialing for physicians, a dimension that could be disastrous to patients. The term refers to the use of economic or financial criteria to decide whether or not a doctor should have the medical staff membership or privileges without which he cannot practice at his local hospital. Physicians document their medical education and training when they apply for hospital medical staff membership for the privilege of practicing and performing surgery in a hospital. Credentialing committees in hospitals make sure that physicians do not practice in specialties in which they have no training. This scrutiny of medical credentials ensures that patients get properly trained doctors.
Data retrieval is key.
We can say that the cost ratio of the first doctor is 20 to 1, whereas the cost ratio of the second doctor is 30 to 1. If the managed-care plan is going to make a profit, it will do better with the first doctor than with the second doctor and welcomes the first one. Essential to this program is knowing how much doctors actually cost the program in terms of expenses meted out for patients' medical care. These expenses used to be called medical care. Now they are characterized as losses or expenses that rob corporate owners or shareholders of profit.