The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic, which specializes in virtual second opinions working with telemedicine technology and services vendor Amwell, has extended its work with Baton Health to scale physician licensing and compliance across the country. Baton offers an infrastructure backbone for healthcare credentialing – powering licensing, privileging and payer enrollment workflows nationwide.
With regulatory scrutiny rising, this collaboration empowers The Clinic to offer rapid, fully licensed virtual second opinions across the country from the renowned Cleveland Clinic's specialists.
Upon implementation, Baton cross-referenced The Clinic's database containing more than 3,000 Cleveland Clinic specialists against its Universal Primary Source platform. Within hours, Baton created a comprehensive report of more than 10,000 licenses spanning all 50 states, including previously unknown licenses, which enabled The Clinic to expand services to more patients.
Checking on an ongoing basis
Baton and The Clinic have worked together to continually monitor and verify new and existing licensure for its providers. In their newly renewed collaboration, The Clinic will also use Baton's platform to automatically check provider licensure on an ongoing basis for an even more streamlined process.
"State laws require providers have an active, in-good-standing license in the state where the patient is located for a video visit," said Robert Coombs, founder and CEO of Baton Health. "The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic must verify, monitor and maintain licensure in any state where a specialist is delivering a second opinion via video. That's a significant volume of administrative work.
"Not only must these licenses be valid and compliant at the time of an encounter, The Clinic also needs to know when to renew them, track delays in processing and identify states where licensure is needed," he continued. "Baton Health enables this by providing high-quality, real-time data across nearly 350 licensing authorities."
Baton helps The Clinic avoid gaps in coverage, pre-fill applications with verified data, and surface licensing needs prior to offering service in a certain state or specialty area.
Stepping up enforcement
"Regulatory scrutiny around virtual care is increasing, especially regarding licensing, enrollment and scope-of-practice compliance," he explained. "State medical boards, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and commercial payers all are stepping up enforcement around where and how care is delivered.
"The days of pandemic-era flexibility are ending, and regulators are making it clear providers must meet full compliance standards in every state where they see patients," he continued. "For virtual-first models, that creates a logistical and legal minefield. It's not just about holding a license; it's about keeping it active, monitoring for sanctions, tracking renewals and ensuring proper scope of care."
Missing one of these elements can delay or invalidate a visit. Baton seeks to make compliance "invisible," he added. It tracks state licenses in real time, flags issues early and gives operational teams the tools to stay ahead of problems.
A second set of eyes
The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic focuses on virtual second opinions for complex and serious diagnoses. These include cancer, heart disease, musculoskeletal and neurological conditions, rare disorders, and other high-acuity cases where a second set of expert eyes can change the course of treatment. They're deep, thorough reviews involving top subspecialists.
Baton's system checks licensing data directly from hundreds of official sources, like state medical boards and federal databases, and keeps that information constantly up to date. The company updates in real time. For The Clinic, that means faster onboarding and fewer unexpected issues with provider licenses, Coombs concluded.
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