- Joined
- Feb 25, 2010
- Messages
- 4,248
- Reaction score
- 1,543
Did anyone catch this?
In the final CMS LCD for Palmetto GBA, you are only considered subspecialty certified in Pain Management if certified by the ABA only (not PMR, psych/neuro), and you are essentially not considered Board Certified in Pain, and cannot do in office stims based on that criteria, unless you have hospital privileges. If you have hospital privileges, you can do them with no training at all.
"Physicians performing SCS trials in the office setting must have like privileges at a local hospital or ASC, or the providers must be subspecialty boarded in Pain Medicine by the Amercian Board of Anesthesiology."
What about the other 3 boards that take the same exact exam?!
In other words, ACGME fellowship, plus ABMS pain boards by ABPMR, or American Board of Psych/Neuro, means NOTHING, even though you took the same damn fellowship and passed the same damn test as the ABA folks.
WTF?
I'm I the only one that caught this. Do other regions have this policy? Now, there is a loophole, that if you have hospital privileges, then you can do in-office stim with no Board certification and no fellowship (and probably even if you are a nurse/crna). But without hospital privileges, you cannot do in office stim, according to CMS in Palmetto, if you are PM&R, Neuro, or "other specialty" with ACGME Pain fellowship and Pain Subspecialty boards.
What if next year, they decide to delete the hospital privileges qualification? Then according to that wording, there will be no way for anyone non-anesthesia, despite an ACGME pain fellowship and despite passing the legit AMBS pain board exam written by the ABA, to do in-office stim. Then soon, private payers will follow. Then this will be extended to ESIs, RFs, TFs, MBBs, Kypho, SIs.
So my and your entire ACMGE fellowship, and Pain Boards, and the dozens of stims I did in fellowship are going to mean nothing?
Aparantly this could happen.
I'm sorry, but the anesthesia folks need to rally around non-anesthesia, ACGME Pain Fellowship trained docs, that passed the same ABA board exam as them, to get this changed before we fall down this very dangerous slippery slope. With all the weekend warrior sheisters out their that never even attempt to do a fellowship, with all the nurses and other people trying to do Pain with ZERO training, ACMGE fellowship + Pain Boards cannot be deleted and made irrelevant....
FOR ANYONE
In the final CMS LCD for Palmetto GBA, you are only considered subspecialty certified in Pain Management if certified by the ABA only (not PMR, psych/neuro), and you are essentially not considered Board Certified in Pain, and cannot do in office stims based on that criteria, unless you have hospital privileges. If you have hospital privileges, you can do them with no training at all.
"Physicians performing SCS trials in the office setting must have like privileges at a local hospital or ASC, or the providers must be subspecialty boarded in Pain Medicine by the Amercian Board of Anesthesiology."
What about the other 3 boards that take the same exact exam?!
In other words, ACGME fellowship, plus ABMS pain boards by ABPMR, or American Board of Psych/Neuro, means NOTHING, even though you took the same damn fellowship and passed the same damn test as the ABA folks.
WTF?
I'm I the only one that caught this. Do other regions have this policy? Now, there is a loophole, that if you have hospital privileges, then you can do in-office stim with no Board certification and no fellowship (and probably even if you are a nurse/crna). But without hospital privileges, you cannot do in office stim, according to CMS in Palmetto, if you are PM&R, Neuro, or "other specialty" with ACGME Pain fellowship and Pain Subspecialty boards.
What if next year, they decide to delete the hospital privileges qualification? Then according to that wording, there will be no way for anyone non-anesthesia, despite an ACGME pain fellowship and despite passing the legit AMBS pain board exam written by the ABA, to do in-office stim. Then soon, private payers will follow. Then this will be extended to ESIs, RFs, TFs, MBBs, Kypho, SIs.
So my and your entire ACMGE fellowship, and Pain Boards, and the dozens of stims I did in fellowship are going to mean nothing?
Aparantly this could happen.
I'm sorry, but the anesthesia folks need to rally around non-anesthesia, ACGME Pain Fellowship trained docs, that passed the same ABA board exam as them, to get this changed before we fall down this very dangerous slippery slope. With all the weekend warrior sheisters out their that never even attempt to do a fellowship, with all the nurses and other people trying to do Pain with ZERO training, ACMGE fellowship + Pain Boards cannot be deleted and made irrelevant....
FOR ANYONE
Last edited: