A quick update on the National Registry Of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME) shows that the number of Certified Medical Examiners (CMEs), that is the number of practitioners who have taken the certification examination and passed has increased.  The last count showed approximately 8,631 CMEs. This number continues to rise daily by a little less than 100 new certified practitioners per day, as we approach the May 21, 2014 compliance date, when the FMCSA expects that at least 20,000 CMEs will be needed.  On a previous post about 1 month ago titled 6,358 Certified Dot Medical Examiners and Counting we discussed how FMCSA representatives are working with private organizations to add additional testing sites and increase hours open for testing to accommodate the growing number of practitioners who need to sit for their examination.  I hope to have further information regarding that, as well as a breakdown on how the different States fare in terms of the total number of CMEs thus far.  Keep in mind that there are many more practitioners who are registered (estimated at over 20,000), but not yet certified because they have not taken and passed the certification examination yet .  We should hopefully see a quick uptick on the number of people become CMEs daily as May 21, 2014 approaches.

The primary legal basis for the establishment of the NRCME comes from the enactment of the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act  (SAFETEA-LU) which required the FMCSA to develop the NRCME as a way to improve safety by requiring only trained medical examiners, familiar with driver qualification standards and FMCSA rules and regulations to examine and certify commercial drivers.  The Final rule was published in 2012 with a compliance date of May 21, 2014,  now only 8 weeks away.