At Teoli Palliative Prep, we understand how valuable your time, money, and energy are. Led by a dedicated palliative medicine physician, we prioritize enhancing your quality of life! With the myriad responsibilities of seeing patients, charting, billing, teaching, research, administrative tasks, license and DEA renewals, and hospital credentialing, we know your day is already stretched thin. Adding CME to this list means dedicating even more of your precious time and, frequently, your other resources.
Through our focus groups and learner feedback, questions about CME frequently arise. We constantly ponder, how can we simplify the lives of our learners? Our solution: include CME credits as part of the comprehensive value when you complete an educational program with Teoli Palliative Prep, with absolutely no hidden fees. We know how frustrating it is to encounter those extra costs other providers tack on, saying, “Earn 20 CME credits for the activity you’ve already paid for, just by adding an extra $50 to your bill!” Our response? No, thank you.
We aim to offer AMA PRA Category 1 Credits in the completion of our comprehensive learning programs. We aren’t quite ready yet, but will keep all learners updated as the process continues to proceed. It is required that the activity is directly or jointly offered by sponsors accredited by the ACGME or state medical society.
AMA PRA Category 2 Credits recognize that not all educational activities fall under Category 1 Credits and are instead sometimes offered, as these activities remain valuable in a physician’s lifelong learning and patient care. These Category 2 Credits are self-designated and claimed by physicians who engaged in educational activities [not currently awarding Category 1 Credits] and find “a worthwhile learning experience related to his/her practice.”
As stated by the AMA itself: “A physician must individually assess the educational value for each learning experience in which he or she participates to determine if it is appropriate to claim AMA PRA Category 2 Credit.”
Also, if you are curious, the AMA’s definition of CME: “CME consists of educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public or the profession. The content of CME is the body of knowledge and skills generally recognized and accepted by the profession as within the basic medical sciences, the discipline of clinical medicine, and the provision of health care to the public.”
Therefore, Teoli Palliative Prep cannot certify that our activities award AMA PRA Category 2 Credit or recommend how many Credits they would otherwise be worth. Here is what the AMA recommends: “Providers may not certify any activities for AMA PRA Category 2 Credit, nor may they provide documentation or otherwise indicate to a physician that an activity qualifies for such credit. AMA PRA Category 2 Credit activities are entirely self-claimed and self-documented by a physician.”
To clarify, we won’t specify how many Credits you’ll earn, or if the educational activities at Teoli Palliative Prep qualify for Category 2 Credits. This determination is entirely up to the individual physician—it’s self-designated, self-claimed, and self-documented. Consequently, we cannot provide certificates indicating you’ve received Category 2 Credits, since this is a process managed by the physician themselves (emphasizing for everyone’s clarity). Therefore, you won’t find us claiming that our activities meet the criteria or are eligible for Category 2 Credits; that’s a decision for you to make.
The last bit of explanation we want to offer from AMA’s guidance is: “Organizations may choose to maintain records of physician participation in activities that have not been certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit, but since they may not certify or award such credit, should not record them as AMA PRA Category 2 Credit.”
Teoli Palliative Prep will maintain records of physician participation and time spent in educational activities (if needed for future reference) but will not label them in our records as AMA PRA Category 2 Credit.
Whew! That was a mouthful! Since we have received numerous questions about CME, hopefully, the above answers many of the most frequent inquiries. Thanks for choosing Teoli Palliative Prep, and let’s get ready to learn!