Primary source verification
Primary source verification confirms a credential with the body that issued it — not with the provider, and not with their copy of it.
Updated
Primary source verification is confirming a provider's credential directly with the organization that issued it: the medical school, the licensing board, the certifying board, the prior employer. The provider's own documentation is not the source — the issuer is.
It is the core of credentialing rather than a formality within it. Accreditation standards, including NCQA's, require verification at the source for the credentials that matter, which is why credentialing takes real elapsed time regardless of how organized an applicant is.
In practice
This is the honest answer to why credentialing cannot simply be made faster by preparing better. Much of the elapsed time is spent waiting on third parties who have no relationship with the practice and no interest in its start date. A complete, immaculate application still waits on a licensing board answering a verification request.
It also explains why credentialing recurs. A verification is a statement about a point in time — a license valid today can lapse, a certification can expire — so payers re-verify periodically, and the process a practice thinks of as one-time is a cycle.
Commonly confused with
- Attestation: An attestation is the provider affirming their own information is accurate. Verification is a third party confirming it with the issuer. A profile can be attested and unverified.