How long does physician credentialing take?

Typically 90 to 150 days across a normal payer mix, longer where facility privileging is a prerequisite or where Medicare and Medicaid dominate the mix.

Does the specialty change the process?

Not the process, the requirements — sub-specialty certification, facility privileges and procedure documentation appear in some specialties' applications and not others, and finding out late costs weeks.

Do you handle hospital privileging?

We support it — file assembly, verification and evidence — while appointment and privileging decisions remain with the medical staff and governing body.

Can you credential physicians in multiple states?

Yes. Licensure, Medicaid enrollment and often commercial contracting are handled separately per state.

What about physicians joining an existing group?

They are credentialed individually and linked to the group at each payer. The linkage is what allows the group to bill their services, and it is a common omission.

Do you handle locum and part-time physicians?

Yes, including the arrangements payers apply to locum coverage, which differ from standard employment.

What happens after credentialing?

Maintenance — expirables tracked, CAQH re-attested every 120 days, and re-credentialing cycles calendared before they fall due.

Physician Credentialing Services (MD & DO)

Physician credentialing is the same process everywhere and a different application in every specialty. What varies is what has to be collected: sub-specialty board records, facility privileges, case logs, procedure-specific documentation — and which of those a payer asks for depends entirely on what the physician does.

ZechionMed credentials MDs and DOs across primary care, medical specialties, surgical specialties and hospital-based practice: licensure and board verification, primary source verification, CAQH, payer enrollment, and the hospital privileging that several specialties depend on.

The single largest determinant of how long it takes is when it starts. A physician credentialed from their offer date is billable months earlier than one credentialed from their start date, and nothing else in the process comes close to that.

What We Cover

Specialties We Credential

Primary Care

The most straightforward applications, and the ones where volume makes speed matter most.

Family medicine
Internal medicine
Pediatrics
Geriatrics
Preventive medicine
Med-peds and combined training programmes

Medical Specialties

Where sub-specialty certification frequently has to be verified separately from the primary board.

Cardiology and interventional cardiology
Gastroenterology, nephrology and endocrinology
Pulmonology and critical care
Neurology
Oncology and hematology
Rheumatology, allergy and infectious disease
Dermatology

Surgical Specialties

Where facility privileging usually sits on the critical path ahead of payer credentialing.

General surgery
Orthopedic surgery
Neurosurgery
Cardiothoracic and vascular surgery
Ophthalmology and otolaryngology
Urology and plastic surgery
Obstetrics and gynecology

Hospital-Based Practice

Physicians credentialed through groups and facilities rather than a practice location.

Hospitalist medicine
Emergency medicine
Anesthesiology
Radiology and interventional radiology
Pathology and laboratory medicine
Critical care medicine

How a Physician Gets Credentialed

1
Start at the offer
Credentialing begins when the offer is accepted, not on day one — the months saved here are months the physician is billable.
2
Collect and verify
Licences, DEA, board certification, education and training, malpractice history and a continuous CV, verified with the issuing sources.
3
Build the profile
CAQH created, completed and attested, since that is the record most commercial payers actually read.
4
Sequence the payers
Filed in the order that makes the physician useful earliest, driven by the practice's payer mix and each payer's turnaround.
5
Privilege where required
Facility privileging run alongside payer credentialing for specialties that depend on it, because the two complete in sequence.
6
Confirm billable
Effective dates confirmed, activation verified with each payer, and billing told which plans are live from which date.

Ready to strengthen your revenue cycle?

Let our specialty billing team handle the codes, claims, and follow-ups — so your clinicians can focus on patients.

Talk to Zech Consultation Form

What Slows a Physician Down

Starting on day one

The single most expensive habit in credentialing. Everything before the start date is time removed from the non-billable period after it.

Sub-specialty certification missing

Payers frequently want the sub-specialty board record. An interventional cardiologist credentialed as a cardiologist can be reimbursed as one.

Work history gaps

Any gap over 30 days needs an explanation. Applications are returned over gaps a single sentence would have covered.

Privileging not started

For surgical and hospital-based specialties, payer credentialing frequently waits on facility privileges. Running them in sequence rather than in parallel adds months.

Malpractice history incomplete

Claims history has to be disclosed and explained. An incomplete disclosure found by the payer is worse than a difficult one disclosed up front.

Frequently Asked Questions

At offer acceptance. It is the one variable entirely within your control, and it moves the billable date more than anything else.

See all FAQs →

Contact ZechionMed

Billable Months Earlier

Credentialing that starts at the offer, collects what the specialty will actually be asked for, and sequences payers deliberately.

Talk to ZechionMed about physician credentialing.