(a) The Legislature finds:

(1) Credentialing, required by hospitals, insurance companies, prepaid health plans, third party administrators, provider networks and other health care entities, is necessary to assess and verify the education, training and experience of health care practitioners to ensure that qualified professionals treat the citizens of this state.

(2) Although uniform credentialing and recredentialing application forms have been created to reduce duplication and increase efficiency, each credentialing entity continues to perform primary source verification for the practitioners who apply to that entity for affiliation. Moreover, because credentialing entities do not follow a common calendar, practitioners are required to respond to requests throughout the year from various credentialing entities seeking essentially similar information. This duplication of primary source verification is time consuming and costly.

(3) The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources and the Insurance Commissioner share regulatory authority over the entities requiring credentialing.

(b) The purpose of this article is to continue the advisory committee previously established to assist in developing a uniform credentialing process through the development of legislative rules to govern how a single credentialing verification organization will operate in this state and, except with respect to health care facilities, the establishment of a common credentialing calendar.