Participation Criteria

In order to obtain and maintain participation in the CHRISTUS Southeast Texas PHO, physicians must meet the following requirements, or such other requirements as may be determined from time to time by the Board of Directors of the PHO. Eligible members currently include M.D., D.O., and D.P.M. physicians, as defined by the Board.

The PHO utilizes the Texas Standardized Credentialing Application for its initial credentialing and recredentialing applications. The PHO Member Physicians are recredentialed at intervals not to exceed three years.

The PHO Policies and Procedures are developed upon the guidelines of the National Committee of Quality Assurance (“NCQA”) and/or Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”) www.tdi.state.tx.us These policies and procedures are revised and updated as needed on a yearly basis in order to maintain compliance with NCQA and/or TDI regulations.

The physician must:

(1) possess an unrestricted current medical license to practice in the State of Texas.

(2) be a member in good standing of the medical staff of a CHRISTUS Health Southeast Texas Hospital.

(3) be board certified or actively pursing board certification in designated specialty, or if not, physician must have successfully completed residency and/or training requirements in designated specialty.

(4) have a current DEA number.

(5) have a current Texas State Narcotics license for the prescription of controlled substances where applicable to the specialty practiced.

(6) disclose a completed professional liability claims history.

(7) have and maintain current professional liability insurance coverage at a minimum of $200,000/occurrence - $600,000/aggregate. Or, an applicant with a minimum coverage of $100,000/occurrence - $300,000/aggregate may be accepted if this meets the minimum requirement of the hospital(s) where the applicant holds privileges; and/or has an aggregate of no more than three malpractice awards and settlements of more than $300,000 within the previous five (5) years from date of incident.

(8) be eligible to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients.

(9) satisfy continuing medical education requirements.

Please email any group, address, or tax identification changes to jennifer.willson@christushealth.org