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Featured PDA Provider

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Benjamin Hawes, MSAOM, Dipl. O.M. (NCCAOM)®, L.Ac.
Backupuncture LLC

NCCAOM PDA Provider #9238

The PDA Department would like to congratulate PDA Provider and NCCAOM Board-Certified AcupuncturistTM Benjamin Hawes, as the featured Provider for the June 2023 issue of the PDA Newsletter. Benjamin was licensed in 2001 and since then he has developed Backupuncture® technique to assess and treat vertebrogenic pain. To ‘to the community, Benjamin also became the Assistant Clinical Supervisor at Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

To read the full article, Click Here.

PDA Provider Digital Badge and PDA Activity Logo

Want to have a chance to be selected as the Featured Provider in the PDA Provider Newsletter?

Be sure you are using these:

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NCCAOM PDA Provider and Course Participant Attestations

To support the Providers during the pandemic, the NCCAOM Recertification and PDA Panel decided to allow courses containing psychomotor skills/techniques to be accepted for all course application types. The NCCAOM PDA Recertification Panel reviewed the requests from our NCCAOM approved PDA Providers and after careful review, the NCCAOM built a pathway that allows all courses to permanently include psychomotor skills and/or techniques. To make this possible, NCCAOM created the NCCAOM® PDA Provider’s Attestation and the NCCAOM® Course Participant’s Attestation. Both the Provider and the participant must acknowledge the responsibilities within each of their roles to prevent danger to the public.

All Providers must sign the NCCAOM® PDA Provider’s Attestation within the PDA course applications.

As for the NCCAOM® Course Participant’s Attestation (below), it is the Provider’s responsibility to include it on all course registration pages within the Provider’s website for participants to sign and agree to the following:

I understand that the information in this course presented by the Provider and/or Instructor(s) is for educational purposes only and should only be applied with appropriate clinical judgment and used by a trained and licensed practitioner. Governmental laws and regulations vary from region to region and the contents of this course vary in permissible usage. The participant is required to check their local, state, and federal laws and regulations regarding the practice requirements and scope of practice issues and the use of the information of this course including, but not limited to, theory, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. I acknowledge that NCCAOM does not endorse any specific treatment regimens of any kind. Furthermore, if I use any modalities or treatments taught in this course, I agree to waive, release, indemnify, discharge, and covenant not to sue NCCAOM from and against any liability, claims, demands, or causes of action whatsoever, arising out of any injury, loss, or damage that a person may sustain related to the use of the information in this course. I understand that this Release is governed by the laws of District of Columbia, U.S.A. and shall survive the termination or expiration of this course. 

The PDA staff will conduct random audits to ensure proper placement of the Course Participant’s Attestation within the Provider’s websites.

PDA Recert Panel – CPR Courses

We are listening! We’ve gathered the public comments regarding the proposed CPR changes and presented them to the NCCAOM Board of Commissioners. After careful consideration, the Board of Commissioners decided to keep the current CPR policies in place.

What does this mean? Diplomates have the option to complete either an online or in-person CPR course without any limitation. Providers who are currently hosting their own CPR courses may continue the course offerings, and NCCAOM staff will be able to accept and count them towards the Diplomate’s recertification to satisfy the CPR requirement.

DEI Coursework – Ethics

According to the best practices in the healthcare industry, Diversity, Ethics, and Inclusion (DEI) topics are included within the ethics category.  As such, NCCAOM is expanding the topics within the Ethics category to include subjects in DEI. For a comprehensive list of topics included within the Ethics category, please refer to the NCCAOM Professional Development Curricula on page 12- 15 of the NCCAOM® PDA Handbook.

NCCAOM Registry

We are excited to roll out the new and improved NCCAOM Registry! This new registry now includes the Diplomate’s First, Middle, and Last Name clearly displayed as three separate fields. This new functionality will assist the Providers in reporting the PDA points correctly to the Diplomate’s recertification transcript.

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If the Diplomate opted in to be listed in the Find-A-Practitioner (FAP) Directory, by clicking on the Diplomate’s Name within the registry, the extended profile will be displayed with the Diplomate’s contact information, personal bio, clinic location(s), Diplomate Badge, education background, languages spoken, as well as health conditions treated:

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Call for Courses

This is where we need your help! As a result of our research, specific courses are needed for those applicants who do not pass the Reinstatement Safety Evaluation and/or Final Assessment.

The following topics are in demand! Courses with these topics will be approved under the Safety and/or Ethics Recertification category:

  1. Vitamins: deficiencies and contraindications
  2. Pharmaceuticals: deficiencies and precautions
  3. OSHA: exposure control plan
  4. HIPAA: definition
  5. Informed Consent: components, authorization
  6. Social Competency: benefits, skill development, social determinants of health
  7. Cultural Competency: benefits, skill development
  8. Patient communication: core clinical skills, benefits, miscommunication, consequences
  9. Adverse and severe events: needling, adverse reactions to Western drugs (Lisinopril, Acetaminophen, Hydrocodone, Fluoxetine)
  10. Mandatory Reporting: child abuse, suicide, sexual harassment, confidentiality, and record keeping
  11. Referrals: emergencies and to other healthcare providers
  12. Chinese herbs: storage, compounding, FDA restrictions, labeling and documentation, incompatibilities, contraindications, and adverse events, toxicity

Course Renewal Reminder Notices

We are changing our course renewal reminder notices! In the past, Providers would receive one email per course for courses that are within the 90-day renewal period. Instead of bombarding the Providers with all the emails, our new setup now contains multiple courses within one email. This is especially efficient for those Providers who have many courses that are all within the same expiration period.

The Provider will also be reminded three times within the renewal period. This means that the emails will be distributed 90, 60, and 30 days prior to the course expiration date. Unlike before, even if the Providers miss the first 90-day notice, they will still receive two additional emails.

How to Renew Courses

Since we are on the topic of course renewals, as a friendly reminder, the course renewal application is a two-step process:

  1. PDA Provider will need to determine if they want to renew the courses on an individual basis, or to purchase an Annual Discounted Review Package (ADR Package).
    1. The ADR Package is a bulk package that allows the Provider to submit new course applications as well as renew existing courses.
    2. The system will not be able to predict if the Provider wants to apply the ADR Package to the course renewals or new course submissions unless the provider submits a course renewal application and/or new course application.
  2. Providers will then need to click on the orange ‘Renew Courses’ button located at the top of the page (within the PDA Provider portal) to submit the course renewal application.

It is important to note:

  • The PDA Provider system cannot foresee which courses the Provider wants to renew. The Provider must check the box next to the ‘Course Title’ column within the renewal application to notify the system.
  • If the Provider wants to apply the ADR Package towards course renewal, the Provider must have a currently active ADR Package in place prior to starting the course renewal application.

Annual Discounted Review (ADR) Package

The Annual Discounted Review (ADR) Package allows the providers to purchase a specific quantity of course applications at a discounted rate. Below are a few tips to keep in mind when utilizing the ADR Package:

  • PDA Providers should only purchase the ADR Package when they are ready to start on the PDA course application.
    • button to start the application.

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  • This lets the system know that there is a package already in place and the Provider will not be prompted to submit additional fees for the course application.
  • The package is valid for one year starting from the purchase date.
  • The package cannot be extended since the Provider has one year to submit course applications.
    • Any unused slots left over at the end of the expiration date cannot be rolled over to the next year.
  • The package includes all course types as well as course renewal.

Tips on Navigating in the Provider and Certificate Systems

  • If Providers receive an email regarding questions on a specific course application, Providers may either click the ‘Add Your Response’ button located at the end of the email, or Providers may log into the PDA Provider portal and click on the ‘Review and Follow up’ button to respond.
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  • To view a record of all applications submitted within the PDA Provider portal, Providers may click on the ‘Account Details’ button located on the upper left-hand corner, and then the ‘Applications’ tab.
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  • Be sure to check and verify that the Responsible Party, Additional Contact, and all contact information are up to date:
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  • For NCCAOM PDA Certificate Distribution using the upload, it is imperative to maintain the header rows the same, making no changes to these rows. Any alteration within the header rows will cause an error within the file and prevent the certificates from being sent out. Instead, Providers will be able to start on Row 5 of the file:
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  • Remember to check the Master Certificate List after each distribution! If there is one button in the Action column next to a certificate instead of four, that certificate has not been distributed. Click on the icon to see why it failed:
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  • To return to the Provider system within the PDA Certificate system, Providers can click on ‘Help’ button located on the upper right-hand corner and click on the ‘Back to Portal’ button.

PDA Question of the Quarter

Winner from November issue: Vera Kaikobad, PDA Provider # 798 of Acupuncture-CEUs.com, Inc. and Jen Resnick, PDA Provider # 624 of Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine
Question: What should you use to increase your chances to be a Featured Provider?
Answer: All the above
Congratulations Vera and Jen!

May Question:  

What is the first step before starting a course renewal application?  

Enter a raffle drawing for a chance to win a free spot in the new NCCAOM® PDA Course Highlights by answering the “PDA Question of the Quarter”:

Submit Your Entry Here

Hint: All answers to the PDA Question of the Quarter can be found on the NCCAOM website.

Did You Know?

Over 86,000 certificates were distributed last year by our PDA Providers!