AOE Compliance Connection – January 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to the January edition of AOE Compliance Connection, AOE’s monthly newsletter. This month’s newsletter includes information about the ACCME’s newly released COVID-19 related resources and highlights from AOE’s own Renea Marin’s presentation at the Virtual Alliance 2021 Annual Conference! Additionally, you’ll find helpful reminders and guidelines for the annual reporting requirements for each of the three major boards along with their upcoming events. If you’re an ACCME accredited provider, we have included a link to AOE’s Accredited Provider survey about the newly released Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, in case you haven’t had a chance to fill it out yet. As we step into the new year, be sure to reach out to us at inquire@aoeconsulting.com for any of your compliance questions or needs!

The ACCME, in collaboration with ANCC and ACPE, has published an updated COVID-19 Clinician Resources webpage at LearntoVaccinate.org that includes current materials, timely articles, CDC updates, and a newly updated searchable database of accredited CE activities.

Clinicians can search for relevant CE activities by filtering for topic (clinical data, patient communication about vaccines, vaccine administration, and vaccine storage and handling), by the organization providing the CE, by credit (AMA PRA Category 1™, ACPE, ANCC, IPCE), or by format.

The ACCME is encouraging all accredited CE providers to 1) promote all relevant CE activities by using this submission form, and to 2) spread the information and materials at LearntoVaccinate.org freely through any communications and social media outlets. Their Educator Resources page dedicated to COVID-19 and vaccinations is regularly updated as well, as a service to providers.

Accredited Provider Survey Reminder

Last week, if you are an ACCME accredited provider, you likely received an emailed survey link from AOE regarding the new Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited CE. As this was the first comprehensive restructuring of the Standards in 16 years, we have received a lot of questions regarding clarification and interpretation. To best address those, we created a brief survey and would appreciate your responses to the questions in this survey link. Aggregate responses will be shared with participating individuals. If you did not receive the survey link or have questions about the new Standards, please reach out to AOE at inquire@aoeconsulting.com. Thank you to those who already completed the survey!

AOE Alliance Presentation

This past week, AOE attended the Virtual Alliance 2021 Annual Conference. AOE Program Manager Renea Marin presented on Thursday, January 14^th during the “Ignite” Session. Her session, Optimally Organized: Quick Tips for Activity File Organization, touched on the management of documentation organization for accredited CE activities. Marin provided attendees with best practice tips and trick for setting up and maintaining a well-organized activity file.

Marin’s presentation underscores that CE professionals be able to outline a consistent accredited CE activity file structure suitable for the program’s needs to effectively prepare for future internal/external audits, Performance-in-Practice requirements and the ongoing training involved with potential staff turnover. Marin also suggested specific modes of organization, providing examples. If you are interested in learning more about this presentation, please contact AOE.

Part of the AOE’s commitment to the accredited CE enterprise is to provide to readers with weekly compliance tips and monthly CE community news for ACCME, ANCC and ACPE

ACCME

Coming Up Next
Save the date for the ACCME 2021 Meeting:  It will be held virtually April 27-29, 2021. Registration is scheduled to open later this month. This year’s new addition to the meeting: An optional longitudinal learning component during the weeks prior to the meeting.  

Annual Reporting
The ACCME’s deadline for 2020 year-end reporting is March 31, 2021. As in previous years, data gathered between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 should be entered into the ACCME’s Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS). State-accredited providers should check with their specific accreditor for reporting requirements and deadlines.

These four steps may assist with your year-end reporting:

1. Enter/Update Contact Information – Providers should confirm/update primary contact information. The ACCME clarifies: “It is a best practice to have individual users update their own information by going to Edit My Profile or via the Profile tab on their dashboard.”
2. Upload Data – Providers must enter required activity data either manually or via batch upload into PARS. Activities can be entered in PARS using the Web Form (tutorial here) or via batch upload (tutorial here). Regardless of the method your organization uses, ensure that all activities are “closed” before submitting the final report.
3. Program Summary Data – Providers must manually complete the financial data on the Program Summary tab in PARS with the required information. Note, for any fields that do not apply to your organization you must enter a “0” in the blank fields in order to save your information.
4. Attest – After all activity data has been entered, providers must complete the attestation confirming that their data is ready to be reviewed by the ACCME. Note, after the provider has attested, they will not be able to edit their activity data or program summary.

A full tutorial for annual reporting can be found here. As an additional reminder, the deadline to complete payment of ACCME annual fees is January 31, 2020.

ANCC

Coming Up Next
The ANCC has opened registration for their virtual February workshops, and is inviting Lead Nurse Planners/Nurse Peer Review Leaders, Nurse Planners, Nurse Peer Reviewers, Specialists, and Managers to attend for CE credit.

The New Applicant Workshop on February 9^th will be an overview of ANCC/ANA including “terminology, eligibility, PAORS, the content integrity standards, & outcomes”. The Provider Unit Workshop on February 10^th will cover Outcomes-Based CE, Accreditation with Distinction, and NARS.

Annual Reporting Requirements
Annual reporting is completed via the ANCC Nursing Activity and Reporting System (NARS) and will be due April 1, 2021. To access ANCC Annual Reporting Requirements, click here (ANCC notes that there are no major changes from last year’s requirements). Additionally, an FAQ page that includes NARS topics can be found here.

All ANCC Accredited Providers are required to submit an annual report to the ANCC inclusive of activity data from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 with a deadline of April 1, 2021. Submission of the annual report is conducted entirely via the Nursing Activity Reporting System (NARS). The ANCC provides a number of resources, tips and FAQs available to help organizations prepare for this milestone.

Helpful Preparation Tips:

• Activity data may be submitted manually through the web interface or automatically as a batch upload.
• There are more fields available for completion than are required by the ANCC; Accredited Providers only need to complete the required fields (see above list).
• Activity locations only need to be provided for activities categorized as “C” (course), and “RSS” (regularly scheduled series).
• Demographic information for organizations may be updated through NARS; however, providers should always ensure to notify the ANCC if there are any changes.

In addition to annual reporting, the ANCC will send invoices to Accredited Providers for remittance of annual ANCC fees. The standard deadline for payment is within 30 days of invoice receipt.

ACPE

Coming Up Next
Registration is now open for the upcoming virtual CPE Administrator Workshop on March 3-4, 2021. The workshop will cover the ACPE accreditation process, including training and group activities focused on the ACPE Standards for Continuing Pharmacy Education and Policies and Procedures Manual. Additionally, the workshop will create networking opportunities through tools like breakout sessions, chat functions, and polling.  Register here, and direct all questions to ceinfo@acpe-accredit.org.

Annual Reporting Requirements
As a reminder, there is no annual report required for ACPE, as activity data is captured ‘real-time’ via the Provider Web Tool and CPE Monitor.