Since the DOT/FMCSA NRCME website went offline in November 2017, we have been asked many questions from frustrated medical providers and office administrators as to what happened, when the system will be restored, and what the new certification and reporting process will entail. The FMCSA has been tight-lipped about why the site was taken down and official notifications, which have changed periodically, have been brief and confusing.
What we know:
Training: Presently, all medical providers wanting to be certified must first complete an accredited training program, such as ours, which will provide the Certificate of Completion required to sit for the national exam. The process now requires completion of training prior to registering with the FMCSA for a provider ID number that is required in order to sit for the national certification examination.
Registration: Once the training has been completed, providers must then register for an account with the FMCSA. The verification process by the FMCSA will take between one to three weeks to complete. Once verified, a provider’s name will then be added to a database that the testing companies are linked to. There are now only two companies nationwide that administer the national exam: PSI and Prometric. Comira, which was once an approved testing company, was acquired by PSI. Unfortunately, medical providers are not notified when they have been verified by the FMCSA and will only know they have been verified when they can schedule the national exam with one of the testing companies. If it has been more than three weeks since a provider has registered with the FMCSA and the provider is unable to schedule the national exam, the provider should contact the FMCSA directly- email: fmctechsup@dot.gov or by phone: 617-494-3003
Testing: Once a provider has passed the national exam they will be notified when the FMCSA have received their test results from the testing company. Unfortunately, the testing companies are presently not able to upload testing results to the FMCSA, a service that is scheduled to be available to them June 2018 or sooner. When the FMCSA process passing national exam results, providers will be informed by email with an official certificate to perform medical examinations on CMV drivers for ten years. The FMCSA will contact providers directly by email for their 5-year refresher training, which occurs 5-years from the date of completion on a provider’s certificate of completion from a program such as ours.
Reporting: There is no current information from the FMCSA as to when medical providers will be able to (and will be required to) report the results of driver examinations to the FMCSA, which of course is the primary intent of the NRCME medical certification program. Given the backlog of examination results to report, once the examination results reporting function is restored, the FMCSA will allow sufficient time for examiners to report results.
With the June 22, 2018 deadline for reporting driver examination results to the FMCSA within one calendar day of the date of the examination, it is anticipated that the date for implementation of this requirement will be postponed. Medical examiners should continue to issue medical certification cards to drivers for each examination unless or until the FMCSA clearly indicates otherwise.
Other: The FMCSA site does currently offer the ability to search for a certified medical examiner using a zip code search.
Enroll in the NRCME Training Institute today or purchase our $99 NRCME Exam Reference Materials. Call us at (941) 600-8411 for more program information and for any current single provider enrollment discounts.