Credentialing health care delivery organizations

As a managed care organization, Kaiser Permanente credentials the following health care delivery organizations (HDOs):

• Hospitals
• Free-standing surgical centers, including birth and endoscopy centers
• Mental health agencies providing mental health or substance use services in an inpatient, residential, or ambulatory setting
• Home-health agencies
• Skilled nursing facilities
• Hospice
• Clinical laboratories
• Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Agency/facility
• Providers of end-stage renal disease services
• Providers of outpatient diabetes self-management training
• Portable X-ray suppliers
• Rural health clinics (RHCs)
• Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)
• Imaging centers

The assessment process includes primary source verification to ensure that HDO providers are in good standing with regulatory bodies. All facilities must also meet standards related to quality improvement programs and personnel issues and must submit proof of malpractice insurance and claims history.

The assessment also verifies that providers are accredited by an appropriate accrediting agency before contracting and every three years thereafter. We have also developed standards of participation for unaccredited HDO providers and will assess them accordingly.