jmj11 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 After two years of hard work, today we officially became board certified in headache medicine, the only practice left in the state of Washington that is Board Certified in Headache Medicine and only the fourth in the entire Pacific Northwest. This will have a profound impact on our practice in future months. After struggling to get paid and to be paid correctly and to contract with insurance companies, most of these woes should be behind us. Our future is secured and I can say that for the first time ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 10, 2014 Moderator Share Posted December 10, 2014 Congrats! Awesome achievement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 So proud of you Mike! You're laying the groundwork for many to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted December 11, 2014 Moderator Share Posted December 11, 2014 YYYYYAHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Congrats - that is well-deserved. One helluva boulder you have been rolling uphill for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdenning Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Woot! Long time coming Mike! You deserve it. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 I do appreciate your well-wishing and support through all of this. Now I just need a good PA or NP to help me see patients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicinePower Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Mazel tov!! Can you share some details about what this requires and maybe the tangible benefits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Congrats! Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatChecko Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Congratulations! Who is the board certification though? Good to hear that these barriers are slowly falling. The next 40 years will see many changes in PA practice and people like you are the forebearers of this change. Thank you from the bottom of my PA-S heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 Congratulations! Who is the board certification though? Good to hear that these barriers are slowly falling. The next 40 years will see many changes in PA practice and people like you are the forebearers of this change. Thank you from the bottom of my PA-S heart. The board certification is through the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialty Certification . When I was the chair of the PA/NP section of the American Headache Society, we petitioned them to allow PAs and NPs to take the exam. They said absolutely not. It was an exam only for board certified neruologists who had completed a headache fellowship.They saw NPs and PAs as an extension of the physician (I know, sad) so if the physician was certified his or her (possessive) NP or PA was. The biggest problem with our practice is that I chose the best physician in our region as my SP. He had his own headache clinic. He is the ONLY physician in our region who had been a member of the American Headache Society. The problem was, he is not a neurologist but a board certified family practice physician. This created huge headaches (pun intended) for our practice with insurance companies. They see us as FP. They pay us as FP. But when your typical patient comes from 100 miles away, has failed all the triptans and at least 5-6 preventatives, including Botox . . . and you spend 60-90 minutes with them, the insurance companies were still trying to pay us like a FP practice that saw little Billy with his first bad headache and ibuprofen worked well for. As part of our petition several years ago to allow us to have access to the board exam we made a strong case for the extreme shortage of headache specialists. In response, the UCNSC made a one time exception (2014) for non-neurologists PHYSICIANS to take the exam, if they had been in headache practice for at least three years. I convinced my SP to do this. I bought all his study books and was his "tutor" (although he is a good student in his own right). I did all the paper work to get his references, his statement of headache practice, his logs of headache practice, I paid the $1,500 for the exam and HE took the exam . . . and passed it. So, by the reasoning of the UCNSC, this makes our entire practice, including myself, board certified in headache medicine. The National Headache Foundation, whom we also petitioned for a board exam to include PAs and NPs, has agreed to do this. In March, I hope to sit for the first board exam that is offered to NPs and PAs as well as physicians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatChecko Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 You got it done and your patients win, that's what PAs are about in the end. It's good to hear a positive ending to these stories of stonewalling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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