NCCPA Refines Certification Maintenance Process, Developing Plans for Lower Fees
NCCPA is developing plans to strengthen and simplify the certification maintenance process by becoming the sole source for all certification maintenance activities, including CME logging.
Strengthening the Integrity of the Process
The credential that NCCPA issues is a standard used by state licensing boards, employers, payers and others who make judgments about whether an individual PA is fit to practice. It’s the hallmark of the profession, and it is NCCPA’s name that gives it meaning.
Thanks to our new Web-based CME logging system and other technological advances, NCCPA is more than able to handle the responsibility for 100 percent of the administration associated with the credential that we grant. And since we’re able to do so, common sense and legal counsel demand that we do.
"NCCPA and AAPA have enjoyed a long, collaborative relationship for CME logging, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with them in other areas. However, now that NCCPA is positioned to assume all of the administrative responsibilities for CME logging—a central component of our certification requirements—we’d be remiss if we didn’t do it," says NCCPA President Elaine E. Grant, MPH, PA-C.
Bringing all CME logging under one roof and auditing CME submissions will enhance the integrity of the logging process and the credential itself.
But that sparks a chain reaction of additional positive changes that will benefit all PA-C designees.
Eliminating Confusion about the Process
The certification of hundreds of PAs lapses each year because they inadvertently didn’t meet all of the certification requirements. This is especially problematic for many PAs who mistakenly believe that the only requirement is the CME that they log with AAPA.
NCCPA hears from a multitude of PAs every year who simply didn’t read the information we provided because they thought they’d taken care of all of the requirements already. Others read the information, and—despite the personalized nature of the communication—assumed that it didn’t apply to them.
No one wants PAs to lose certification—and possibly lose their jobs--because they didn’t understand the process.
Developing a Simpler Process
In addition to simplifying the process by making NCCPA the one-stop shop for all certification and certification maintenance procedures, taking administrative responsibility for all CME logging enables us to make other changes to the certification maintenance process.
Under our existing arrangement, the reregistration application is the only way we stay in touch with all PA-C designees between their exams. In other words, it’s the only time 100 percent of PA-C designees are required to touch base with NCCPA to let us know where they’re practicing and how we can contact them. As long as PAs are able to log CME without making contact with NCCPA, the reregistration application provides a vital link to those PAs.
However, once all PA-C designees are logging CME directly with NCCPA, the need for the separate reregistration application is negated.
Therefore, when NCCPA begins handling logging for all PA-C designees, reregistration as a separate process will be eliminated.
Lowering Certification Maintenance Fees
There’s still another benefit of this change: lower fees.
Increasing the number of PAs who log with NCCPA creates some economies of scale; the amount of money per PA that it costs us to process CME will be lower. And NCCPA is going to pass the savings on to all PA-C designees.
We’re diligently working on a fee-restructuring plan that we’ll announce later this year. In the meantime, we can make the following promise:
NCCPA’s fees for certification maintenance will be lower than the combination of today’s CME logging and reregistration fees.
The List Goes On…
As if fewer lapsed certificates, a simpler process and lower fees aren’t reason enough to view this favorably, here are just a few more benefits of the new CME logging rules.
- Beginning in 2002, all CME submitted to NCCPA will be recorded in detail, so that PAs will have access to a complete record of the CME they earned. (Currently, only a summary of the number of hours earned is available.)
- Logging as you go, a practice encouraged by NCCPA, simplifies record keeping for PAs, speeds up processing time and reduces the likelihood of lapsed certificates as the deadline crunch approaches.
This change is good for the profession and the PA-C designation. NCCPA’s Board of Directors and staff are looking forward to its implementation.
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