to be the first Chief Medical Officer at DataSpring and sees that as a signal that the credentialing organization wants more physician input, to make credentialing for physicians easier and more secure. He has organized DataSpring’ s first Provider Advisory Council. This body is primarily comprised of doctors but also has practice managers and other healthcare professionals. It is designed to reexamine the processes of DataSpring as it provides a single platform for the credentialing of providers by insurers and a limited number of hospitals. Data security is a huge issue as the data collected must be immunized against encroachments by the tools of artificial intelligence. Doctors are rightly concerned that the information that they provide and that DataSpring verifies is protected and not allowed to be accessed by parties not authorized by each provider.
Dr. Ding is looking for more general input from practicing physicians as well as the Provider Advisory Committee. As an example, he points to past questions that could be considered stigmatizing. Asking a doctor if he or she ever had a malpractice suit, or was ever incapacitated, makes such questions more about the past than about the current level of professionalism. The timing of such questions is being truncated to carve out any past concerns. This is consistent with the best practices of the American Medical Association( AMA) and of the Lorna Breen Foundation, which was founded by her family in memory of Dr. Breen, who died by suicide in 2020. Its goals are to promote mental health for doctors and to teach about the warning signs one might detect in a potentially suicidal person.
Dr. Ding’ s role is to get physician input to help DataSpring be more responsive. He fully understands that the practicing community views the credentialing process as“ The Good, The Bad and The Annoyance.” He recognizes that most physicians appreciate that there is one entity that can verify the information in the submitted and attested DataSpring forms, which then can be used by any insurer that the physician designates. It does not go to entities unless the doctors chooses each entity specifically. That elimination in the redundancy of form completion for every insurer truly is a benefit that doctors recognize.
that practice manager the passwords. That is viewed as a weakness in security. Dr. Ding indicates that in the next version,“ DataSpring will have a‘ Surrogate’ profile and account feature that will allow practice managers and credentialing staff to work on behalf of the physicians, without having to use the physician’ s login.” Then there is“ The Annoyance.” To keep DataSpring profiles for credentialing current, the organization requires providers to“ attest” to the veracity of the data in their individual files. In accordance with the“ No Surprises Act,” attestation must be done every 120 days and requires the provider or delegated individual( who holds the provider’ s passwords) to open the portal and attest to the accuracy. This is not terrible, just provides the“ Annoyance.”
Dr. Alex Ding wants to have an open-door policy. He welcomes comments sent directly to him at ading @ dataspring. com. He indicates that he wants to connect with the GLMS community. As he says,“ My job is to make sure the people building these systems never lose sight of the physician on the other end of the screen.”
How does DataSpring fit in with MedCentral offered by the Greater Louisville Medical Society? In 1991, prior to the initiation of CAQH in 1998, MedCentral was established by GLMS to help centralize the credentialing process. At that time, it was primarily for hospitals and for ambulatory care facilities. That is still its primary role although once the large hospital systems began employing doctors, not all physicians have been able to hold hospital credentials at multiple hospitals. For that reason, the large health systems have brought credentialling into their own systems, creating their internal economies of scale. MedCentral still provides credentialing for a number of healthcare entities( see box). MedCentral uses DataSpring information as part of its process. While DataSpring primarily assists the credentialing for insurers and health plans, MedCentral performs that for the local healthcare facilities. As such, the two are complementary organizations. Since there is a Louisville connection for both DataSpring and for MedCentral, there is great opportunity for synergy and for meaningful physician input.
References
1
Jahanian D, IRANIAN SCIENCE Medicine in Avesta and Ancient Iran, The Circle of Iranian Studies, https:// cais-soas. com / CAIS / Science / medicine _ avesta. htm
2
Doximity GPT accessed June 22, 2026
3
CAQH Is Rebuilding From the Ground Up— Here’ s What Providers Need to Know, Found at Insights, Status between, published at WCH service bureau, June 2025, https:// insights. wchsb. com / 2026 / 06 / 08 / caqh-is-rebuilding-from-theground-up-heres-what-providers-need-to-know /
Dr. James is an internist / pediatrician seeing patients at Family Health Center.
“ The Bad” is the volume of information that must be submitted. Some physicians on social media have raised concerns that when they ask practice managers to complete the forms, the doctor has to give
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