For many therapy organizations, credentialing and provider enrollment have long been handled through a patchwork of manual processes. Some outsource to credentialing companies. Others manage credentialing in-house, relying on spreadsheets, email threads, and calendar reminders.
Both approaches have their place. Third-party credentialing services can provide valuable support, especially for organizations navigating highly complex payer networks or managing large provider counts without the internal capacity.
But for therapy practices that choose to keep credentialing in-house, relying on disconnected systems and manual workarounds can quickly create friction that affects revenue cycle management, compliance, and patient access.
Why Credentialing Is Critical in Physical Therapy and Rehab
Credentialing is a foundational part of ensuring healthcare providers are qualified, compliant, and ready to deliver care. Delays in the credentialing process mean delayed reimbursement and patient access, directly impacting both clinical and financial performance.
🔍 Key Definition
“Credentialing is a formal process that utilizes an established series of guidelines to ensure that patients receive the highest level of care from healthcare professionals who have undergone the most stringent scrutiny regarding their ability to practice medicine.” — National Library of Medicine
Credentialing is the first step in protecting your organization from compliance risks and denials tied to payer enrollment gaps. For rehabilitation practices managing multiple providers and locations, building credentialing into core systems is essential for long-term sustainability.
Where Credentialing Workflows Break Down
During Raintree’s recent webinar, “Credentialing Reset: Tackling Slowdowns in the Provider Enrollment Lifecycle,” more than 80% of attendees reported using manual, in-house credentialing processes. That result reflects what many therapy organizations experience day-to-day:
Manual Provider Credentialing Processes
It can take between 30-90 days to credential a new healthcare provider, but in some cases the process can be even longer. As Mike Strus, Raintree Product Manager, shared during the webinar: “Every day that a provider is fully onboarded and not enrolled with payers is a day of lost revenue.”
Credentialing-Related Denials in Medical Billing
Credentialing-related denials are a common denial type across all healthcare settings. In one MGMA poll, more than half of medical practices reported a rise in credentialing-related denials year over year. Unlike other denials, these are typically hard denials that cannot be easily corrected or resubmitted.
Siloed Provider Enrollment Data
Credentialing information often lives in silos: HR systems, billing platforms, shared folders, and spreadsheets that don’t talk to each other. For organizations that want to keep credentialing in-house while reducing those risks, relying on outdated workflows simply isn’t sustainable.
In many cases, teams of only one or two FT credentialing specialists are often responsible for managing credentialing across multiple locations, creating risk of human error and burnout.
How Built-In Credentialing Services Improve Efficiency and Control
Rather than bolting on another third-party system or outsourcing entirely, therapy organizations can benefit from EMR-native medical credentialing tools. These solutions are built into your EMR and practice management workflows, creating a better health provider credentialing and enrollment process.
Here are four ways that built-in credentialing solutions can benefit your practice:
1. One System, One Source of Truth
Provider demographics, licenses, certifications, payer enrollment data, and expirable alerts all live in one place. No more reconciling conflicting credentialing information across multiple systems.
2. Proactive Alerts and Automations
With provider credentialing tied into your EMR, your team can automatically receive alerts about upcoming expirations or missing information. You can even block scheduling for non-credentialed providers if needed.
3. Faster Onboarding, Fewer Denials
By streamlining provider enrollment workflows, EMR-native credentialing services help reduce onboarding timelines and minimize denial risk. That means faster revenue recognition and fewer compliance headaches.
4. Visibility for Leadership
Credentialing stops being a black box. Real-time dashboards and reports let operations leaders track key metrics like time to credential, outstanding tasks, and denials tied to credentialing gaps.
For therapy organizations that want to own their credentialing and enrollment process while improving efficiency, EMR-native solutions offer a scalable, sustainable path forward. As Mike put it: “Credentialing stops being a burdensome administrative task and becomes a strategic advantage when it’s integrated into your EMR.”
Efficient Credentialing Supports Team Collaboration
Credentialing isn’t just a back-office task. Its outcomes affect clinical operations, revenue cycle management, and patient scheduling. When credentialing workflows are disconnected or manually managed, it creates silos that slow down every team involved.
An integrated, EMR-native tool enables HR, billing, scheduling, and credentialing teams to work from the same up-to-date provider data. This alignment reduces duplicate work, eliminates communication breakdowns, and helps everyone stay focused and efficient.
“You shouldn’t have to tap a provider on the shoulder ten times just to get a license copy,” said Carrie Myers (VP, Solutions Engineering). “Automation should handle that.”
Reset Your Workflow with Smarter Credentialing Software
For therapy organizations, building credentialing into your EMR isn’t just about replacing manual processes. It’s about improving revenue cycle performance, supporting compliance, and creating smoother collaboration between clinical, billing, and administrative teams.
Managing credentialing and enrollment in-house with EMR-native tools can help your practice operate with greater visibility and control—all while reducing delays and denials that impact patient care.
Raintree’s platform for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and rehabilitation practices offers integrated credentialing services alongside scheduling, billing, and clinical documentation. To see how it all connects, watch “Credentialing Reset: Tackling Slowdowns in the Provider Enrollment Lifecycle” or request a demo today.
