Credentialing for hospitals, health systems and health plans remains a repetitive, time-consuming burden that takes physicians’ attention away from their patients.
"Our goal is to always find new ways to leverage our ever-expanding physician data set to transform the credentialing process,” said Tammy Weaver, the AMA's vice president for Physician Professional Data™ products.
Enter VeriCre™, which integrates AMA physician data into the application processing platforms of leading credentialing software solutions. “With VeriCre, we’re focused on streamlining application processing and enhancing efficiency so physicians can start practicing medicine sooner,” explained Weaver.
After being rolled out last spring with MD-Staff Passport, VeriCre is now active in more than 400 locations and is supporting the work of physicians and medical staff professionals.
“Reducing obstacles that interfere with patient care is what VeriCre is all about,” Weaver said, noting that the AMA does not endorse third-party software.
The AMA developed VeriCre by working with leading health care organizations, physicians and medical staff professionals to understand inefficiencies.
Physicians have been purposefully consulted “every step of the way,” Weaver said.
Before launching our initial proof of concept, we conducted in-depth interviews with physicians to identify their pain points in the credentialing process,” she said.
Physicians expressed that the credentialing process “is incredibly time-consuming," with some even mentioning that it deterred them from applying for new jobs or seeking additional privileges. By accelerating the privileging and payer enrollment processes, onboarding time is shortened and physicians can care for patients sooner.
Increases credentialing efficiency
The AMA is known as a trusted source of verified physician data and VeriCre is the solution that is working towards a more efficient process starting by pre-populating data required during the credentialing process.
"The AMA is recognized by accreditation standard organizations for several of the data elements required in the credentialing process,” she said. “That is essential and gives the AMA a head start as we work to make the process more efficient.”
The AMA has years of experience working with organizations across health care to collect and maintain critical data. Today, the AMA manages over 1.5 million physician records and processes over 180 million updates per year.
In addition to being a trusted source of physician data, the AMA’s ongoing work to reduce physician burnout is aligned with its efforts to streamline credentialing with the use of VeriCre.
“We're seeing an increased focus in health care organizations trying to reduce physician burnout,” Weaver said. “The AMA is doing a tremendous amount of work in this space through its Joy in Medicine® program.”
The AMA is working with organizations to measure the efficiency VeriCre has brought to the credentialing process. Weaver said that anecdotal feedback has been positive.
“We've heard from a large ambulatory care provider using VeriCre, and they're estimating that their credentialing efficiency has improved by about 20% already. They are able to process applications much more quickly,” she said. “They think they could push that even 10% to 15% higher within the next 12 months.”
More positive feedback came from a physician applying at two hospitals—one using VeriCre and one not. The physician found the application process was much easier at the hospital with VeriCre. He asked the second hospital if they could follow suit.
“This was really great reinforcement from the physician perspective,” Weaver recalled.
Behemoth forms now the norm
Physician credentialing is a cumbersome process driven in part by the enormous amount of information required.
“These applications can be overwhelming,” Weaver said. “Some run as long as 40 pages and often request the same information multiple times.”
VeriCre makes the credentialing process more efficient by pre-populating physician applications with primary-source AMA data. The solution is backed by the AMA Physician Professional Data and has the information to prepopulate about half the required data. The VeriCre product team is focused on determining the next pieces of data to include in future releases to continue to remove obstacles to patient care.
Weaver explained that two data components have already been added and another six are being worked on based on input from the Credentialing Advisory Board made up of representatives from AMA Credentialing Solutions customers.
“Our customers are helping us prioritize where their pain points are,” Weaver said. “This is evolving. It will be ongoing, and we plan to make progress every year.”
Next steps include integrating VeriCre into more credentialing software solutions and expanding into the other markets, including health plans. We are in discussions with three credentialing platform providers about VeriCre integration.
“VeriCre fits nicely with the AMA's overall mission,” Weaver said. “What I love about it is how it enhances efficiency for physicians while simultaneously delivering benefits to hospitals, health systems and health plans. It's a big win and we are very excited about its future potential.”
VeriCre is currently available to MD-Staff Passport software users. An integrator agreement has been signed with QGenda. The QGenda beta launch is expected in the first half of 2026, and work is ongoing to integrate VeriCre into other major credentialing software programs.
Want to see VeriCre in action? Physicians, hospitals and health systems can contact the AMA to learn more.
