Commercial Driver Medical Examination| Rules and Regulations

FMCSA Medical Examiner Bulletins 2016

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12/19/16

5 year Mandatory Refresher Training –required under 49 CFR 390.111(a)(5)(i)

  • When training becomes available FMCSA will provide refresher training online to medical examiners at no cost.  So keep your contact information current. Examiners who fail to complete the training will be removed from the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.  If you have any concerns contact the FMCSA Office of Medical Programs at 202-366-4001.

 

12/12/2016

Alternative Process for VA Physicians to be Listed in the National Registry

  • The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM):  Process for Department of Veterans Physicians to be Added to National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners was published on 12/01/2016 in the Federal register and comments were due by January  3, 2017.  There were about 172 comments received.  The usual organizations and stakeholders submitted their views and concerns.  This time around there was an unusually large percentage of submissions from chiropractic medical examiners and their organizations.   Chiropractors are excluded from the list of Qualified VA physicians.  A qualified VA physician is defined as:

    Qualified VA physicians must be either a doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy currently employed in the VA; be licensed, certified, or registered in accordance with applicable State laws and regulations to perform physical examinations…                    

Also excluded are mid-level practitioners (physician assistants and advanced nurse practitioners) who also submitted comments.

FMCSA plans to provide training and testing online through the VA’s web-based system and will allow qualified VA Physicians passing the examination to be listed as certified VA medical examiners (MEs).

Although the proposed rule would allow certified VA medical examiners to conduct examinations only on veteran operators, upon leaving the Veteran’s Administration the former VA MEs if they choose to, may update their registration in the National Registry and conduct examinations on all CMV drivers.

 

12/02/2016

Clarification Regarding Alterations to Driver Examination Forms

This is self explanatory.  The FMCSA requirements was covered in a previous post.

 

10/27/2016

CMV Driver Examination Reporting by Third Party Organizations (TPO)

This is an enhanced service feature that allows medical/occupational medicine offices or busy examiners to designate a Third Party Organization (i.e. Companies providing software for online management systems or cloud based Electronic Medical Records a.k.a EMR) to electronically submit completed driver examinations on their behalf.

FMCSA states: Important Note: Designating a Third Party Organization does not exempt MEs from the requirement to report “no examinations” at the end of the month if they have not performed any CMV Driver Medical Exams.

However, some of these companies can automatically submit completed exams, and even (if applicable) the required “no exams performed” (but check with the TPO to be sure). Some of the TPOs listed were discussed in a previous post.  So if your needs extend beyond just assigning individual Administrative Assistants to help you manage your DOT medical examinations look into some of the companies listed here.   Examiners have the ability to combine the variety of medical services they offer (not just DOT exams) with drug screening and Medical Review Officer (MRO) services into one software program or interface.

Many of these companies have been in this sort of space for some time now and should be familiar.  The TPOs that are currently approved and registered by FMCSA are:

 

04/12/2016

Screening and Treating of CMV Drivers and Rail Workers with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

See previous post  regarding the joint FMCSA & FRA ANPRM  on Obstructive Sleep Apnea and the Medical Review Board and Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee recommendations.

 

01/2016 to 03/2016

The rest of the bulletins:  In March 2016 was about the delayed use of the finalized Medical Examination Forms and Certificates covered in a previous post and in January there was a useful 12 pages of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) published by the FMCSA.

Categories: Commercial Driver Medical Examination| Rules and Regulations, DOT Physical Rules and Regulations, National registry of Certified Medical Examiners

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Published by Randolph Rosarion M.D.

Board Certified physician in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) Certified National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME) Certified Medical Review Officer (MRO) USCIS designated Civil Surgeon Certified Examiner of Divers (Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine Society) FAA designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME)