Mt. Airy native launches IMJ Credentialing
By RICK WOELFEL | The Times Herald
PUBLISHED: October 30, 2018 at 12:21 p.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 9:28 a.m.
NEWARK, DEL. -Ivy Collins saw a need and promptly created a business to fill that need. The result is IMJ Credentialing LLC.
Based in Newark, Del., the company works to connect health care providers with insurance carriers
Collins, a Mt. Airy native, launched the business earlier this year with her daughter, Melanie. While IMJ Credentialing provides credentialing services to a wide variety of health care providers, including physicians and physical therapists, some 75 percent of the company’s clients offer mental health services.
Ivy Collins notes that many mental health professionals are wary of insurance companies.
“I think the idea [behind launching the business] really was basically seeing therapists struggling with the whole credentialing aspect,” she says, “and it was surprising to see that a lot of therapists really didn’t understand what credentialing was. They knew if they wanted to accept insurance, they had to go through a process, but they just weren’t sure what that was.”
Collins says because of all the hurdles they must clear, many therapists in private practice would rather their clients pay out of pocket and then seek reimbursement from their insurance carriers.
The services that Collins and her daughter provide to health care professionals include verifying their educational background, as well as their training, residency, license status and whether they’ve ever been the target of a malpractice lawsuit, among other things, and then making that information available to various insurance companies. The process takes 90 to 120 days on average.
Collins notes that negotiating the insurance labyrinth is particularly challenging for therapists in private practice.
“It’s kind of easier for therapists that work for groups,” she says. “Let’s say you have a group called ABC and you have all these therapists that work underneath that group, and let’s say they’re hired as independent contractors.
“They would go through a credentialing process where we would check their license, their malpractice, if they went to school where they said they went to school and then we would process their applications to all the different insurance companies. It’s an easy process for them if they go through a group.
“But, if they have their own private practice, I think a lot of therapists, I don’t know if they would rather have patients pay out of pocket instead of going through that whole credentialing process. Because I think a lot of times I think that they could probably make more money being paid out of pocket than they would if they went through the insurance companies.
“That’s fine on one end, but if you have a mental health patient who really needs care and can’t afford to pay out of pocket, they have insurance and they’re like, ‘Hey, I’m trying to find a good therapist that takes my insurance,’ and it’s so hard for them to find someone.”
Collins also works to link therapists with employee assistance plans (EAPS) that some companies offer to their employees. These types of arrangements allow individuals access to a certain number of sessions with a therapist without paying out of pocket; their therapist is paid by their employer instead.
“The one thing about EAPs is they don’t pay as much as Aetna or Keystone or Cigna,” Jones says, “but it’s still a way to not turn people away.”
And not turning potential clients away is in large part the point. While IMJ Credentialing LLC provides services to care providers, it indirectly serves the consumer as well.
Even in the second decade of the 21st century, it is often difficult to access mental health care that is both effective and affordable. For the consumer, finding a therapist with whom they feel comfortable and whom they can also afford can be a daunting task. And even today, there is a stigma attached to seeking or receiving treatment for a mental health issue.
Collins said she is hoping that the services her company provides will simplify the credentialing process for therapists, thus easing access to mental health care for people who need it.
“People are not comfortable calling when they have a mental health problem,” she said. “I don’t know how we can make that easier for them to want to call. [Providers] have to really make it comfortable for people. They have to they feel like they don’t have this stigma.”