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Dear ConnAPA Members,
ConnAPA President Jason Prevelige has sent a letter to the NCCPA on behalf of Connecticut PAs expressing the Board of Director’s concerns about the proposed changes being considered for the recertification process. Detailed information about the possible changes is presented below in a posting sent out earlier.
LETTER TO NCCPA
Dear Connecticut PAs,
We write you today to make you aware of a major change in our certification process as PAs that the NCCPA is proposing.
The NCCPA is proposing changes which would require periodic take home generalist exams and a specialty exam given every 10 years to maintain certification. This would be above and beyond the SA CME and PI CME requirements. The proposal would allow for exams in 10-12 specialties.
The AAPA does not support these changes and has created a webpage to explain the issue further. It can be accessed regardless of your AAPA membership status and we encourage you to take a look HERE. Currently 73% of PAs practice in specialties, despite having generalist training. Based on the results of ConnAPA’s latest salary survey, only 19% of respondents work in primary care or hospitalist medicine. The question NCCPA is asking: does the current recertification fulfill our obligations by continuing use a generalist exam? The NCCPA is interested to hear feedback from PAs and thus is implementing a survey open 2/10/16-3/1/16. The survey has been sent to PAs via email. For further information please visit: www.nccpa.net/panre-model
A few points we would like you to consider:
1. These proposed changes undermine a core value of our profession which emphasizes generalist training, and the beauty of our profession is that we are the only medical professionals who may change specialties without further schooling.
2. PAs currently have the option of taking a CAQ exam (at a cost of $350), and we believe specialty exams should remain optional.
3. These proposed changes will inevitably cost PAs more money in fees to maintain certification.
4. PAs practice in every specialty of medicine and surgery, and there would only be10-12 specialty exam options.
5. We fear that requiring specialty exams will pigeonhole PAs and detract from our ability to change specialties.
In closing, we wanted to bring awareness to these proposed changes, which we personally are not in favor of. The AAPA is currently engaging the NCCPA and expressing their disagreement, as are many of the other state chapters. If you choose to take the survey that was sent out by the NCCPA, we encourage you to please be very candid in the comments box at the end of the survey.
Thank you for your time and please let us know if you have any questions.
All the best,
Jason P. Prevelige, MHS, PA-C
President
Deanna Zimkus, MHS, PA-C
Vice President |
