Designate an Authorized Agent

Health care organizations can use authorized agents to perform their credentialing tasks of querying and reporting to the Data Bank. To establish an authorized agent, both the health care organization and the agent must be properly registered with the Data Bank and have a mutually-written agreement in effect prior to the authorized agent’s query or report submissions. The query and report responses submitted by the agent are routed, either directly to the organization, the agent, or both the organization and the agent, per the organization’s preference.

To Designate an Agent

To establish an agent relationship, the Data Bank Administrator must follow these steps::

    1. Sign in to the Data Bank as the Data Bank Administrator and select Continue.
    2. On the Administrator Options page, select Maintain Agent Information.
    3. On the Authorized Agents page, click Add.
    4. Complete the form on the Designate Authorized Agent page.
    5. Certify the information, and click Continue; follow the instructions on the Agent Designation Status page and click Continue.
    6. Print or save the formatted copy of the Agent Designation Request and keep as part of your records.
    7. Notify the agent’s Data Bank Administrator. Instruct the administrator to sign in to the Data Bank and accept the request.

Note: Upon sign in, the agent’s Data Bank Administrator receives an alert stating that electronic correspondence is available.

  1. If the agent accepts the designation, the Agent Designation Status page appears. Click to view the Agent Designation Response. Print or save the response and keep it with your records. Once a request is accepted, the agent can begin querying or reporting on the health care organization’s behalf.
  2. If the agent rejects the request, he or she is asked to provide a reason for the rejection, which is sent to the initiating organization.
  3. The health care organization’s Data Bank Administrator receives electronic correspondence through the IQRS, stating that the request is rejected or approved.

About Multiple Organizations

Although authorized agents can represent multiple organizations, they cannot use the same query response on behalf of more than one organization. Information received from the Data Bank must not be shared between multiple organizations. If two organizations wish to query on the same practitioner, by the same agent, the agent must query the Data Bank separately on behalf of each organization. The query response cannot be disclosed between the two organizations.