How do physician assistants keep certification current?

A physician assistant who adds injectables to a practice has a second question to settle: does the training count toward certification, or is it separate? The answer starts with what NCCPA asks of every PA.

What NCCPA requires

NCCPA's page on maintaining certification says PAs must complete 100 CME credits and submit a certification maintenance fee by December 31 of their certification expiration year. It adds that PAs must also pass the PANRE or the PANRE-LA by the end of the 10th year of their certification maintenance cycle.

That passage has three parts: the credits, the fee, and the recertifying exam. The credits and the fee share one December 31 deadline, and the exam has its own, so a PA planning a course schedule around Morristown, or booking training in the larger metro market a short trip east, needs both dates in view.

Where to read the primary source

NCCPA publishes the full program on its own site. The Become Certified page shows how certification starts, and the NCCPA home page leads to the maintenance pages quoted above. Check them before you rely on any summary, including this one.

Nurses in the same clinic look to their own credentialing bodies, such as the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The NCCPA requirements above are written for PAs.

Calendar the fee, question the credit type

A fee and a December 31 deadline are routine. Calendar them once and they stop being a concern.

What changes a decision is whether a training program's credits count toward the 100 that NCCPA names. Ask the program to state, in writing, what kind of CME it provides, then compare that against NCCPA's wording.

The one thing I would do first

Write down your certification expiration year and the end of your 10th year before you book any course. Every other training choice fits around those two dates, not the other way around.