PA anesthesia

[zippa]

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I was listening to this podcast about PA's in anesthesia and I was wondering if any of these "elite" PA's (as the host calls them) are at your program? Also how would licensure work for someone like that? If you don't want to listen to the podcast, a brief synopsis...He started working in an anesthesia dept in the 70's, one of the residents quit or left, they needed someone to replace the resident and allowed him to complete a full residency in anesthesiology at Yale. He is now an associate clinical professor at Yale. Just to add, he has a great understanding of his role in medicine and says he always corrects a patient that calls him "doctor."

http://www.reachmd.com/xmsegment.aspx?sid=3268
http://www.ymg4mds.org/directory/profile.asp?dbase=dir_main&setsize=20&pict_id=2300010

 

[jwk]

I was listening to this podcast about PA's in anesthesia and I was wondering if any of these "elite" PA's (as the host calls them) are at your program? Also how would licensure work for someone like that? If you don't want to listen to the podcast, a brief synopsis...He started working in an anesthesia dept in the 70's, one of the residents quit or left, they needed someone to replace the resident and allowed him to complete a full residency in anesthesiology at Yale. He is now an associate clinical professor at Yale. Just to add, he has a great understanding of his role in medicine and says he always corrects a patient that calls him "doctor."

http://www.reachmd.com/xmsegment.aspx?sid=3268
http://www.ymg4mds.org/directory/profile.asp?dbase=dir_main&setsize=20&pict_id=2300010

And yet it remains a mystery as to how he is actually reimbursed for providing anesthesia services. The only recognized anesthesia providers are MD's, CRNA's, and AA's.

 

[zippa]

The only recognized anesthesia providers are MD's, CRNA's, and AA's.

Yeah, I know that. That's why I was wondering how licensing and reimbursement would work for him. Do insurance companies just make exceptions for those very few PA's?

 

[fakin' the funk]

I was listening to this podcast about PA's in anesthesia and I was wondering if any of these "elite" PA's (as the host calls them) are at your program? Also how would licensure work for someone like that? If you don't want to listen to the podcast, a brief synopsis...He started working in an anesthesia dept in the 70's, one of the residents quit or left, they needed someone to replace the resident and allowed him to complete a full residency in anesthesiology at Yale. He is now an associate clinical professor at Yale. Just to add, he has a great understanding of his role in medicine and says he always corrects a patient that calls him "doctor."

Can you imagine coming on as a new assistant professor at Yale and being a tier below a PA who did an anesthesiology residency? That's so...weird.

 

[primadonna22274]

There are PAs who've been at it as long as the profession--40-odd years. Of course those PAs have gained incredible experience and have morphed into something much more than the new grad PAs programs put out these days. IMO you just can't compare this kind of PA to the PA masses....
I think it's probably still quite rare that a non-physician gets to complete a physician-designated residency. I'm not sure if it happens anywhere anymore...but we know anecdotally that it has happened in the past.
I think this demonstrates that this is a truly unique and well-qualified PA. As far as reimbursement, I dunno...probably some exception has been made, and I'm sure plenty of contact with the payors.
I take my hat off to this guy and those like him. There aren't that many.

 

[core0]

And yet it remains a mystery as to how he is actually reimbursed for providing anesthesia services. The only recognized anesthesia providers are MD's, CRNA's, and AA's.

The only recognized providers by Medicare are Physicians, CRNAs and AAs. Other insurance plans can credential any provider that they wish to. PAs can also bill for preop assessment (where the vast majority of PAs that practice in anesthesia work). As of 2006 PAs were among the class of providers that can bill for conscious sedation when another provider is needed to administer conscious sedation. While not all of these are "providing anesthesia" they are within the realm of anesthesia services.

Finally there is no requirement to bill for services. This is always an option. Most of the PAs that actually provide anesthesia (N estimated <25) work for programs that do not directly bill for services such as VA or HMOs that own the facility.

David Carpenter, PA-C