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Panel OKs streamlined credentialing bill to speed new health providers into practice
Summary
The Labor, Health & Social Services Committee unanimously approved House Bill 82 to create a single, uniform online credentialing application for insurers and require credentialing decisions within 60 days, with interim acknowledgment and timeframes to resolve incomplete applications.
The Labor, Health & Social Services Committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 82, a bipartisan measure intended to shorten the time it takes new health-care providers to complete credentialing and begin seeing patients.
Representative Clauston, who led a joint interim task force on the topic, told the committee the bill requires insurers to accept a uniform online credentialing application and establishes time frames for insurers to acknowledge, review and complete credentialing. "Currently, in Wyoming, when you get a new provider, you have to fill out 6 to 15 pages of forms for every single insurance company," Clauston said, describing the administrative burden the bill is meant to reduce.
Under the bill as presented, an insurer would have seven days to acknowledge receipt of an application (written or electronic); once acknowledged the insurer would have a 60-day clock to complete credentialing. If the insurer notifies the applicant within 30 days that the application is incomplete, the applicant would have 30 days to supply missing information; failure to do so restarts the insurer’s 60-day period.
Representatives of hospitals, the Wyoming Medical Society and major carriers told the committee they had worked with legislators over the interim and support the measure. "As we recruit new providers into the state, the last thing we want to do is bring them in and have impediments or barriers to them beginning their practices," Eric Boley, president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, said during testimony.
The Department of Insurance told the committee it will be responsible for developing the uniform credentialing form and that certain statutory sections will take effect immediately to allow rulemaking and administrative steps before the bill’s July 1, 2025, effective date.
Committee members pressed for clarifications about scope and timing; Representative Aukman asked whether pharmacy benefit managers were included (the bill excludes pharmacy benefit managers from the definition of health carrier), and the department official clarified the effective-dates language is meant to allow rule development ahead of implementation.
The committee moved and seconded the bill and then approved it on a roll-call vote recorded as eight ayes and one excused. Representative Clauston volunteered to carry the bill on the House floor.
The measure packages a standardized application, concrete timelines and administrative oversight to reduce credentialing delays that members said are contributing to access problems in some parts of the state.
