Earn a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care (PMHC) to show your advanced expertise in your specialty.
CAQ recipients seeking the following benefits have reaped reward for their achievement:
- Over 75% found or anticipate finding a new job
- Over 40% successfully sought a promotion
- 60% achieved or expect to increase their job responsibilities
- Over 50% received or anticipate receiving a pay increase, and 33% received a cash bonus
- Over 75% found the CAQ useful in documenting qualifications required for external accreditation
- Over 33% achieved or anticipate a broadening of their eligibility for reimbursement
- Almost 75% have received greater recognition or regard from physicians or other health care professionals
- 66% reported greater respect or acceptance from patients
Earning a CAQ shows your employers that you are committed to your specialty. It demonstrates your dedication and passion to health care and the well-being of your patients.
Still unsure? Read more about the requirements below.
Introduction and Prerequisites
Palliative medicine and hospice care focus on the physical, psycho-social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of serious illness. Palliative care is person/family-centered, aligning a person’s values to possible treatments and interventions with the goal to relieve suffering. Through early integration of service, an effort is made to improve quality of life, for the patient and their family.
The Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care (PMHC) CAQ program is applicable to all PAs who practice in diverse specialties such as palliative medicine and hospice care, critical care, emergency medicine, family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, geriatrics, hospital medicine, nephrology, neurology, oncology, etc. and in a wide range of settings, such as private practices, health systems medical groups, cancer centers, dialysis centers, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and hospices may routinely rely on palliative care skills and knowledge in caring for their patients.
PAs who wish to earn the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ must demonstrate they have knowledge and experience in palliative medicine and hospice care, above and beyond that expected of entry-level PAs or experienced PAs who are new to this area of care. Earning a PMHC CAQ will help PAs who want to document their experience and knowledge and/or who are required to have such a credential for privileges or reimbursement in this specialty area.
PAs seeking the PMHC CAQ must first satisfy two basic pre-requisites: (1) current PA-C certification and (2) possession of a valid, unrestricted license to practice as a PA in at least one jurisdiction in the United States or its territories, or unrestricted privileges to practice as a PA for a government agency. (Note: If a PA holds licenses in multiple states, all of the licenses must be unrestricted.) The licensure prerequisite is addressed more fully here.
In addition to these prerequisites, PAs must have specialty-specific CME, experience in the field, and pass a PMHC CAQ exam. In support of the procedures and patient case requirement, each applicant must provide attestation from a physician, lead/senior PA, or physician/PA post graduate program director who works in the specialty and is familiar with the PAs’ practice and experience. PAs may find it helpful, however, to secure such a sponsor at the beginning of the process for the purpose of seeking guidance on the pursuit of the other requirements.
CME Requirement
In the six years preceding the date of application for the specialty exam, PAs must earn a minimum of 75 credits of Category I CME focused on palliative medicine and hospice care, with a minimum of 25 of those credits having been earned within two years prior to the date of exam application. The 75 credits must include an activity related to the safe and effective prescribing of opioids, and the CME credits used for earning a CAQ may also be used for maintaining the PA-C credential.
Recommendations for CME Activities:
PA and physician leaders working in palliative medicine and hospice care provided input in developing the following recommendations for CME activities for PAs interested in pursuing the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ:
- Advanced Care Planning
- CME sessions offered by palliative medicine and hospice care organizations
- Certificate courses, graduate level courses, fellowship programs, etc.
How do you know if CME activities are related to palliative medicine and hospice care? Use your best judgment. (Keep in mind that the credits may be subject to a CME auditing process.)
Once PAs have completed the CME requirements for the CAQ, they’ll attest to this online at their personal certification record.
Experience Requirement
PAs seeking the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ must document a minimum of 2,000 hours of experience (the equivalent of one year of full-time practice) providing palliative medicine and/or hospice care to patients with serious and life-threatening illnesses and advanced/serious chronic health within six years of the date they provide their attestation to NCCPA. If selected for an audit, documentation substantiating that work experience will be required. Although not required by NCCPA, it may be beneficial for PAs to create a log of knowledge, skills, and patient management experiences.
Procedures/Patient Case Requirement
PAs must provide an attestation from a physician, lead/senior PA, or physician/PA post graduate program director who works in the specialty and is familiar with your practice and experience within 90 days after your receive your CAQ score. More details are listed in the required attestation form here.
Exam Requirement
Once PAs have satisfied other requirements for the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ, they are eligible to apply for the PMHC CAQ exam. This exam will consist of 120-multiple-choice questions related to palliative medicine and hospice care and targeted for PAs with experience in this area.
The Content Blueprint for the PHMC CAQ exam can be found here.
Earning a Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ
All exams for earning the initial CAQ are administered at Pearson VUE Test Centers.
Maintaining the Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ
Exams for maintaining a CAQ are administered both online and in the Pearson VUE Test Center
The Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care CAQ will be valid for ten years. To maintain the CAQ beyond that timeframe, PAs must continue to meet the same PA-C and licensure requirements required of those seeking the CAQ for the first time, pass the PMHC CAQ Exam before the expiration of the current CAQ, and — during the ten-year CAQ cycle — earn and log at least 125 credits of Category I CME focused on the specialty. The same 125 credits may also be logged to maintain the PA-C credential.
Other Policies
Auditing
To ensure the reliability and accuracy of the CAQ and maintenance processes, NCCPA may audit the requirements of PAs who have applied for a CAQ or have successfully completed the CAQ process. PAs who fail the audit or refuse to submit to an audit may be subject to loss of the CAQ and/or other disciplinary actions as deemed appropriate by NCCPA and in accordance with the Policy and Procedures for Disciplinary Review.
Loss of Eligibility
PAs who lose eligibility for a CAQ after submitting the application and fee will be deemed ineligible and restricted from registering for the exam or from maintenance of CAQ activity, or will be withdrawn from the examination or maintenance activity if registration has already been processed.
Financial Requirements
PAs must submit any outstanding fees to NCCPA prior to becoming eligible to apply for a CAQ or for CAQ maintenance.
If a PA loses eligibility for a CAQ or CAQ maintenance after submitting the application and fees or if, at any time, it is determined that a PA provided incorrect eligibility information on any NCCPA application, the PA forfeits all fees.
Exam Results
Results from the CAQ exams will be released to examinees after NCCPA has completed all scoring and validation processes. PAs may not register to repeat an examination if they have scores pending from a previous administration of the same examination. If a PA is deemed ineligible for the CAQ after taking the exam but prior to the release of exam results, the exam results will be invalidated and not reported to the PA.
Disciplinary Review
Nothing in this policy shall limit or prevent NCCPA from imposing sanctions as set forth in its Policy and Procedures for Disciplinary Review.
Regaining a Certificate of Added Qualifications
PAs who lose a CAQ due to the expiration of their PA-C certification may reinstate their CAQ upon regaining their PA-C certification, as long as the original or most recent CAQ expiration date has not passed and the PA meets the licensure/federal privilege requirements for the CAQ program. The CAQ will be reinstated for the period of time remaining in the CAQ maintenance period. PAs who lose a CAQ for any other reason, including NCCPA disciplinary actions, must begin the CAQ process anew by meeting the eligibility requirements for initial CAQs, including passing the CAQ examination, or may seek a reinstatement of their CAQ when they regain certification by filing a request for an exception to policy, as long as the CAQ expiration date has not passed and the PA meets the licensure/federal privilege requirements for the CAQ program