Midlevels and procedures?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

itzamemario

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
43
Reaction score
10
Can midlevels (PA or NP) do nerve blocks, Nerve ablation, SIJ injections? My job is asking the doctors to teach the midlevels how to do these, and I'd love some insurance guidelines that says no. I haven't found anything so maybe this is a common thing throughout the country?
 
If you are going to to have a midlevel do a cervical rfa there is no point in having doctors in the practice. You are training your replacement.
I agree. I'm guessing it's more shoulder RFA and nerve block , but I'd be terrified having Mbbs or RFA someone who hasn't done thousands.
 
Tell them no.

I know they allow it some states. Doesn’t mean it’s right or that you should be contributing to the problem. I have a patient that used to live in Colorado tell me on her first visit “shots just don’t work for me doc, they already tried a bunch there.” Managed to track down the fluoro images where a CRNA had performed a couple paraspinal blobograms. An actual TFESI worked great. Don’t enable malpractice.
 
It’s a formal training process for doctors to become proficient on it, how could midlevel possibly pick it up on the fly? Even CRNAs get some sort of certification practicing on dead bodies.
 
I am confused how it is your job to ask physicians to teach midlevels procedures…
 
Tell them no.

I know they allow it some states. Doesn’t mean it’s right or that you should be contributing to the problem. I have a patient that used to live in Colorado tell me on her first visit “shots just don’t work for me doc, they already tried a bunch there.” Managed to track down the fluoro images where a CRNA had performed a couple paraspinal blobograms. An actual TFESI worked great. Don’t enable malpractice.
lol at paraspinal blobograms
 
The big radiology group in town has their PAs do all of their fluoro guided PICC lines, chest tubes, organ biopsies, LPs etc. just heard one of them introduce himself as the interventional radiologist to a patient the other day. Really pissed me off
 
I've seen this before. Some surgeons train their PAs to do cryal ablation, MSK injections, nerve blocks and all sorts of spine injections. It's motivated by greed no matter what they tell you. It does not increase access to care. It just increases access to Lamborghinis for the doctor using them. That is of course until they go off on their own
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1881.JPG
    IMG_1881.JPG
    99.9 KB · Views: 65
The big radiology group in town has their PAs do all of their fluoro guided PICC lines, chest tubes, organ biopsies, LPs etc. just heard one of them introduce himself as the interventional radiologist to a patient the other day. Really pissed me off

well, given what i have experienced with interventional radiologists, it is a relatively low bar for someone to call themselves an interventional radiologist
 
When the patient comes back with a septic knee is the midlevel going to manage it?

Or more likely how happy will the patient be when all their viscosupplement ends up in Hoffa's fat pad and they can barely move their knee?
give them the scraps from Longshanks' table

i dont like the idea of midlevel creep, but its a fact of life
 
Tell them no.

I know they allow it some states. Doesn’t mean it’s right or that you should be contributing to the problem. I have a patient that used to live in Colorado tell me on her first visit “shots just don’t work for me doc, they already tried a bunch there.” Managed to track down the fluoro images where a CRNA had performed a couple paraspinal blobograms. An actual TFESI worked great. Don’t enable malpractice.
Yeah I live in Colorado. It's insane. There are crnas doing pain procedures all over. A lot of the more rural places don't have physicians. Instead the hospitals hire crnas probably because it's cheaper. They do a bunch of injections that don't work then send them to us when things have failed. It's aggravating.
 
Yeah I live in Colorado. It's insane. There are crnas doing pain procedures all over. A lot of the more rural places don't have physicians. Instead the hospitals hire crnas probably because it's cheaper. They do a bunch of injections that don't work then send them to us when things have failed. It's aggravating.
need to get in bed with insurance to only allow board certified doctors to do this
 
need to get in bed with insurance to only allow board certified doctors to do this
Honestly not sure why insurance and Medicare don’t limit who can bill for these services. Seems like a no brainier way to control costs and rein in over utilization. Surprised they didn’t do this years ago. Unless of course they secretly don’t want to decrease over utilization so they can justify further payment cuts 🤔
 
Top