amednews.com: ACGME extends accreditation abroad to improve physician training

Officials in Singapore and the Middle East are partnering with the U.S. graduate medical education accrediting body.

Carolyn Krupa, October 1, 2012

For more than three decades, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has evaluated and accredited graduate medical education programs in the U.S. Now it is expanding its reach with an international program aimed at raising GME standards in other countries around the world.

ACGME-International recently completed the first phase of a partnership with the Ministry of Health in Singapore to revamp the GME accreditation system in that country. Meanwhile, the ACGME-I has signed contracts in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and is negotiating with officials in Oman, said John Nylen, ACGME-I executive vice president and chief operating officer.

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Amednews.com: Medical licensure: State lines pose daunting barriers

Several states have expedited licensing to make it easier for physicians to practice in multiple states.  But some doctors say more needs to be done.

Carolyne Krupa, September 17, 2012

Knoxville, Tenn., family physician Chris Sawyer, MD, has traveled the world providing volunteer medical care for patients in countries such as Haiti, Venezuela and Chile. But volunteering to treat needy patients in the United States isn’t as easy.

Dr. Sawyer often finds himself hamstrung by laws that require physicians to be licensed by individual state medical boards.

“America is kind of funny in some ways,” he said. “To be in family practice, I have to take a national board exam every seven years, but I can’t go 50 miles from here to practice in Kentucky. I can travel all over the world, but I can’t go to Kentucky.”

Read more here.

FierceHealthcare: CMS fails to report to anti-fraud database, OIG says

September 14, 2012, Alicia Caramenico

 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services still isn't living up to healthcare fraud reporting requirements, failing to report all disciplinary actions against providers to the national Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank, the Office of the Inspector General said in a report released Wednesday.

 

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Federation of State Medical Boards Receives Grant to Facilitate Medical Licensure Portability

HRSA grant to support streamlined application processes, reduce barriers to multi-state practice

DALLAS – The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has been awarded a three-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to continue initiatives currently underway to streamline the state medical licensure process and reduce statutory and regulatory barriers to telemedicine. The grant is the third the FSMB has received from HRSA since 2006 to facilitate license portability.

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ABMS News Release: Additional ABMS Member Boards Drop End Dates: Emphasize Continuous Involvement in Maintenance of Certification

August 9, 2012

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) announced that three additional Member Boards are emphasizing continuous involvement in their respective Maintenance of Certification programs. Ongoing certification with each Member Board is contingent upon meeting the Maintenance of Certification requirements for the specific Member Board, which are part of the ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (ABMS MOC®) program. As a result, each of the three Member Boards listed below have eliminated specific “end dates” for their participating Board Certified physicians. The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and American Board of Radiology (ABR) have joined the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) in emphasizing the continuous nature of the ABMS MOC program.

Read the rest here.

amednews.com: Setting a global standard for medical education

A 2023 rule that all IMGs graduate from appropriately accredited medical schools to practice in the U.S. is fueling global education requirements.

Carolyne Krupa, Aug. 13, 2012

As an international medical graduate, Dr. Saby Karuppiah, MPH, knows the challenges of becoming certified to practice in the United States. He also knows that all medical schools are different. Views on how to prepare students to practice medicine vary by school and by culture.

“Even though a vast majority of IMG physicians are competent and well-trained like myself, a few undertrained IMGs can give a bad rap to all IMGs in general,” said Dr. Karuppiah, who went to medical school at Sri Ramachandra University in India and completed residency training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

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amednews.com: Medical staff has no standing to sue hospital, court rules

The Minnesota Medical Assn. and others say the case’s final ruling could put staff rights at risk.

Alicia Gallegos, Aug. 20, 2012.

A physician medical staff is not an independent, unincorporated body and therefore cannot sue the hospital where it operates, a Minnesota court has ruled. The decision answers one question in a legal dispute between a group of doctors and Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center, but other issues remain.

A judge still must decide if hospital bylaws should be considered a contract between doctors and medical centers, and if hospital administrators can unilaterally repeal those rules.

Read the full article here.