It was only a couple decades ago that healthcare professionals considered medical credentialing—that is, the process of getting enrolled in an insurance company’s preferred provider network—to be an optional step in building their medical practices, or an unnecessary step to growing their client/patient caseloads.

Back then, persons didn’t expect every healthcare provider to accept their insurance (some corners of the healthcare industry, like mental health services, weren’t even covered by most insurance plans). Also, any patients had “out of network benefits,” which meant that the patient could meet with a doctor of his/her choice and then file for reimbursement from his/her insurance company later. Oh How Things Have Changed.