There is a growing trend among healthcare providers to hire certified case managers, according to a new white paper from the Commission for Case Manager Certification.
As a result, employers are willing to pay for certification classes for employees, the CCMC said.
According to a 2009 CCMC survey, the demand for case management certification is strongly connected to market factors moving organizations toward more defined quality standards. A key finding of the survey is that the case management field appears to be "professionalizing," researchers found.
The number of respondents with a bachelor's degree or higher level of education is increasing (65 percent in 2009, compared to 60 percent in 2004), and the requirements and rewards associated with certification also seem to be growing, the study found. More employers require certification (36 percent in 2009, compared to 26 percent in 2004) and more employers offer additional compensation for certification (27 percent in 2009, up from 20 percent in 2004).
[Read how one case management program prepares nurse leaders for ommunity health needs.]
"The employer perception of the growing importance of certification suggests that employers view certification as a quality indicator, a proxy for demonstrating competence that an employer is willing to pay for and even require," CCMC researchers said.
Lisa Woodring, RN, with more than a decade of experience, is a superviser of 15 case managers as senior vice president of clinical operations for a regional behavioral health managed care company in Kansas. She said when her employer required her to become certified, she went "kicking and screaming." A new federal contract mandated that her employer require case management certification.
"It seemed like all the materials I had to know were medical," Woodring said of the certification course. "I worked in the behavioral health and substance abuse field, and I hadn't done nursing case management for quite a long time."
According to the CCMC, Woodring passed the examination and said she found the process immediately useful.
"It broadened my knowledge base and made me look at Medicare again, and a lot of material I hadn't worked with in vocational rehabilitation," she said in the white paper. "I went back to work and was able to effectively supervise case managers for our federal policy based on what I had learned."
Sandy Wederquist, RN, director of care management for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, said case management certification is becoming a standard practice in the insurance industry.
"You don't have to be certified when we hire you, but it's preferred, and you will have to get certification within three years," she said in an interview for the white paper. She said an applicant who already has the certification behind her will get "extra points on her interview."
Read CCMC's entire white paper here.
[See also: Are healthcare workers paid too much?]