The truth about recertification!!!

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Stating that they know of no dissatisfaction with the process is rather disingenuous. Most I know think the process is onerous and confusing as well as unproven in its methods.
As far as profit, the ACE questions are now a required CME activity. I think that qualifies as clouding the picture and further lining the pockets. Most ASA leaders are also ABA leaders.
I have also asked numerous times what the curriculum is for the simulation centers and if it is standardized. Have never received an answer. The second comment on the article sums it up: Pay us, show up, and you'll have a good time and receive credit for the process. Will it make us better anesthesiologists? Nobody has proven that as far as I know.
I don't disagree with recertification. I do disagree with the overall process and how cumbersome it is and how it is filled with busy work that will have no impact on your abilities to practice medicine.
 
Money making scam pure and simple.
 
Mark A. Warner, MD, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), said the ASA is not the exclusive provider of educational materials and activities for the maintenance of certification in anesthesiology (MOCA) process.
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ACE or SEE are now required, and ASA is the sole source! Sounds "exclusive" to me.



Ugh. I'm banging away at my Practice Performance Assessment And Improvement now, and it's a pain. I guess I could just half-ass it, but supposedly it's subject to audit and review, whatever that means. I wonder how many they bounce back.
 
Is there a formal group or petition organized against the ABA and its re-certification process?

If so, let me know and I will sign up.
 
Not to try to start an argument but why is it that people who became certified prior to 2000 are "grandfathered" in and don't have to take the exam? I think that is very unfair. Everyone should be required to have the same standard exam (whatever that may be, if any). I am all for CME's but having to travel some place to take a simulation exam is ridiculous and expensive.
 
foxtrot said:
Not to try to start an argument but why is it that people who became certified prior to 2000 are "grandfathered" in and don't have to take the exam? I think that is very unfair. Everyone should be required to have the same standard exam (whatever that may be, if any). I am all for CME's but having to travel some place to take a simulation exam is ridiculous and expensive.
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The reason the ABA uses for the Grandfather clause is simple: Those of us before 2000 were NOT told about the necessity of RE-certification. Those after 2000 were informed of that requirement prior to starting a Residency.

The ABA used the same reasoning when it lengthened Residencies by 1 year. I remember seeing those who had to do one year less than me simply because they were grandfathered in to the old requirement.

Now, the trend is towards re-certification. I abhor the current process as it is both expensive and burdensome. It should be based on your current practice, invlove CMEs and an open book exam of some sort. I would require a 95% passing score on the exam and use the process to ensure CURRENT PRACTICE STANDARDS are both stressed and reinforced. After all, isn't that the primary reason for recertification in the first place?
 
You guys have MOCA, we in EM have LLSA and the ConCert exam (yearly for the former, and every 10 years for the latter - short for "Continuous Certification").

It is all a money making scam, period. The professional organizations of individual specialties are in cahoots with the individual boards, who are, in succession, in cahoots with the ABMS. It's a cabal.

It's antitrust! RICO! RICO!
 
dr doze said:
The information was available in ABA literature at least a year or two before 2000.
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That's irrelevant anyway. Wasting your time and money is no better just because you were warned by the people taking advantage of their power to milk you for thousands and to justify their baseless support of simulation.
 
GypsySongman said:
That's irrelevant anyway. Wasting your time and money is no better just because you were warned by the people taking advantage of their power to milk you for thousands and to justify their baseless support of simulation.
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Exactly. If you live in the middle of the US, you had better be prepared to by a plane ticket and a hotel room because Chicago and St. Louis are it. I guess maybe I wouldn't have so much of a problem if every state had a simulation model in place. But having to fly somewhere is just ridiculous.
 
I honestly feel we should flood the ASA with emails, down with the sim center requirements and the improvement project. I honestly think we should have more SEE/ACE and get rid of the formal test. As least the SEE/ACE you know exactly what you know and don't know. With a test we have all been so well programmed to "just pass" that we loose sight of the important part, the knowledge we should know and got wrong.

My guess is that those stating that the process is not a problem are grandfathered in.
 
dr doze said:
The information was available in ABA literature at least a year or two before 2000.
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That may be, but it is presumptive to state that "we were informed". I can tell you with some confidence that not a single one of my med student colleagues explored the ABA website before we matched, nor were we encouraged to by the anesthesia dept at my med school, or my anesthesia advisor, or my anesthesia PD or Chair until we were months into residency.

If someone chose to avoid anesthesia solely because of recertification, they will probably be disappointed to find out that this will be the future for basically every medical discipline. To say I was informed, thus have no reason to complain, is ingenuous. I'm not saying that was Blade's point, I'm just saying.
 
seinfeld said:
I honestly feel we should flood the ASA with emails, down with the sim center requirements and the improvement project. I honestly think we should have more SEE/ACE and get rid of the formal test. As least the SEE/ACE you know exactly what you know and don't know. With a test we have all been so well programmed to "just pass" that we loose sight of the important part, the knowledge we should know and got wrong.

My guess is that those stating that the process is not a problem are grandfathered in.
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Well I'm one who is grandfathered in for life. I've recertified once and am in MOCA now for a second recerc. The process is flawed with the wrong focus; it should be about maintaining high standards and staying up to date. Hence, I support a re-working of MOCA with emphasis on CME like SEE, ACE, online review with quizes, etc. I do agree with an Exam but it should be open book with a 95% score to pass. With my concept of MOCA all you need is a computer/laptop/Ipad and internet access plus some money to pay the ABA.
 
Bertelman said:
That may be, but it is presumptive to state that "we were informed". I can tell you with some confidence that not a single one of my med student colleagues explored the ABA website before we matched, nor were we encouraged to by the anesthesia dept at my med school, or my anesthesia advisor, or my anesthesia PD or Chair until we were months into residency.

If someone chose to avoid anesthesia solely because of recertification, they will probably be disappointed to find out that this will be the future for basically every medical discipline. To say I was informed, thus have no reason to complain, is ingenuous. I'm not saying that was Blade's point, I'm just saying.
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I never stated that you were informed. I simply contributed to the discussion. ABA certification, let alone maintenance of certification was never intended to become a minimum standard. Although it is rapidly becoming that. The rules of the game were changed for those starting their residency in 2000. It is unjust iMO. The same rules for recertification should apply to all practicing anesthesiologists.

Like Blade I have a time unlimited certificate and re-certified. When the time comes I will probably enroll in MOCA with the one time accelerated option so I can get out of either the Case Evaluation or the simulator, whichever I find more odious. I will do this simply because I believe that having this particular merit badge might give me more career options. If I were absolutely certain that my current job is my last I wouldn't have bothered with recertification or MOCA.
 
dr doze said:
I never stated that you were informed. I simply contributed to the discussion. ABA certification, let alone maintenance of certification was never intended to become a minimum standard. Although it is rapidly becoming that. The rules of the game were changed for those starting their residency in 2000. It is unjust iMO. The same rules for recertification should apply to all practicing anesthesiologists.

Like Blade I have a time unlimited certificate and re-certified. When the time comes I will probably enroll in MOCA with the one time accelerated option so I can get out of either the Case Evaluation or the simulator, whichever I find more odious. I will do this simply because I believe that having this particular merit badge might give me more career options. If I were absolutely certain that my current job is my last I wouldn't have bothered with recertification or MOCA.
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I wasn't directing my rant at you, or anyone else here. I agree with your sentiment that this standard should apply to all practicing anesthesiologists. Some have even expressed the opinion that if anyone should be required to recertify, it should be the grandfather-types.
 
Bertelman said:
I wasn't directing my rant at you, or anyone else here. I agree with your sentiment that this standard should apply to all practicing anesthesiologists. Some have even expressed the opinion that if anyone should be required to recertify, it should be the grandfather-types.
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The time will come when you will be a grandfather type🙂
 
It's a scam.

My friend took his recertifcation written exam on computer I believed for $900 testing fee in 2010 (that's what he told me) Now if I register for the 2012 exam the ABA wants $2000 for the written exam for the 2012 session.

WTF? How can they jack up the rates by over 100%. Aren't computer testing supposed to make it cheaper?

While on a lower level than than most most financial firms board of directors who pay themselves millions.

Still the ABA and other boards need to fully disclose how much each officer is getting paid and how many hours they committ to those duties.
 
aneftp said:
It's a scam.

My friend took his recertifcation written exam on computer I believed for $900 testing fee in 2010 (that's what he told me) Now if I register for the 2012 exam the ABA wants $2000 for the written exam for the 2012 session.

WTF? How can they jack up the rates by over 100%. Aren't computer testing supposed to make it cheaper?

While on a lower level than than most most financial firms board of directors who pay themselves millions.

Still the ABA and other boards need to fully disclose how much each officer is getting paid and how many hours they committ to those duties.
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Some info is available:

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2009/060/646/2009-060646523-06c0b82a-9.pdf
 
Don't know for sure if this is the whole story, but I think it is. I have an OB/GYN friend who told me that their board impanels a nat'l committee charged with selecting a group of literature articles considered to be the most current knowledge in the field. Then these are distributed and used as the basis for an open book testing certification process for them.

It sounds like a more focused way to achieve currency in knowledge than what anesthesia does.

If this is not accurate, blame it on a locker room conversation.
 
My main point..

ensure important knowledge is passed on to the diplomats don't assess for a minimum amount of random knowledge.

Should a person who gets every airway related question on the exam wrong but passes the exam as a whole still be a board certified anesthesiologist? Its time we get beyond tradition, focus on distributing and acquiring knowledge and decreasing the cost and time spent.
 
aneftp said:
It's a scam.

My friend took his recertifcation written exam on computer I believed for $900 testing fee in 2010 (that's what he told me) Now if I register for the 2012 exam the ABA wants $2000 for the written exam for the 2012 session.

WTF? How can they jack up the rates by over 100%. Aren't computer testing supposed to make it cheaper?

While on a lower level than than most most financial firms board of directors who pay themselves millions.

Still the ABA and other boards need to fully disclose how much each officer is getting paid and how many hours they committ to those duties.
Click to expand...


Now I'm gettin real PO'ed
 
Maybe we can have an Occupy the ASA protest for all the fees for recertification. I mean, they just find new ways to steal.
 
If MOCA really is a scam and represents corruption between the ABA and the ASA, what can be done about it? Perhaps it would be worth bringing it up with your state anesthesia society, and with your delegates that attend the annual ASA meeting. Others have mentioned that a separate board certification process should be enacted to bypass the ABA.

http://changeboardrecert.com/
 
Make your opinion heard by contacting the ABA and the ASA.

For thw ABA, there is a web form you can fill out:

http://theaba.org/Contact

Otherwise:

ABA Office:
Phone: (866) 999-7501
Fax: (866) 999-7503

Office Hours:
Monday through Friday 9:00AM to 5:00PM ET

Address correspondence to:
Secretary
The American Board of Anesthesiology, Inc.
4208 Six Forks Road, Suite 900
Raleigh, NC 27609-5735


For the ASA:

http://asahq.org/For-Members/About-ASA/Contact-ASA.aspx

Headquarters Office
520 N. Northwest Highway
Park Ridge, IL 60068-2573
telephone: (847) 825-5586
fax: (847) 825-1692
e-mail: [email protected]
 
You fix the problem by NOT DOING IT!!!!

It is a voluntary process right? Its a waste of time. TOTALLY!!!
 
bala1 said:
You fix the problem by NOT DOING IT!!!!

It is a voluntary process right? Its a waste of time. TOTALLY!!!
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There are potentially serious consequences for choosing that particular path.

Of course if everybody did it...
 
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