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Ask the expert: What credentialing information will be available from the AOA under the new OCC program?

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, September 9, 2010

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Note: This week’s Q & A was answered by Cheryl Gross, MA, CAE, director of the Division of Certification at the AOA. More information about the AOA’s OCC is available in the October issue of Briefings on Credentialing. www.CredentialingResourceCenter.com.

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA), through the Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists (BOS), is in the process of converting from its current recertification process to osteopathic continuous certification (OCC).  It will be similar to the process that’s currently in place. We have one primary source verification website, www.DOprofiles.org. The site is managed through the American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA). For an additional fee of $2 per practitioner, medical staffs can order a premium profile, which will automatically send an update to the medical staff every time the AOIA updates the practitioner’s profile for a full year after purchase.

We are still finalizing how OCC compliance will be reported on the profiles. Within the DO profile, we expect to have a box that clearly indicates whether the practitioner is current with his or her OCC process. This is designed to be an easy way for credentialing professionals to determine certification status. MSPs’ jobs are difficult enough without having to consider scenarios such as whether the practitioner has half of his or her required CME hours although the deadline for gathering CME hasn’t yet passed. Rather, you need to know whether the practitioner is currently certified in his or her specialty.

It’s possible that the profile may contain a simple statement—e.g., “Dr. John Smith is currently fully participating in the OCC process as developed by the American Osteopathic Board of Dermatology”—that the medical staff may print out and include in the practitioner’s credential file. The details are still being determined.

In the next few months, we will have an FAQ on our website (www.do-online.org) that offers medical staffs more information about OCC and how they can access the data. Obviously, the credentialing community will be at the forefront of our communication plans for spreading the word about OCC.

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