RESNA Gears Up To Credential More ATPs

With just a little over a year before implementation, the Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America is cranking up its efforts to meet a credentialing mandate from CMS.

Beginning April 1, 2008, CMS will require that the specialty evaluation for certain power wheelchairs be performed by a RESNA-certified Assistive Technology Practitioner (ATP) specializing in wheelchairs or a physician who is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

The agency will also require that the wheelchair come from a supplier employing a RESNA-certified Assistive Technology Supplier (ATS) “who is directly involved in the wheelchair selection for the patient.”

The RESNA-certified ATP or the physician cannot have a financial connection to the supplier.

The specialty evaluation refers to patients receiving a Group 2 single- or multiple-power option power wheelchair, any Group 3 or Group 4 power wheelchair or a push-rim activated power assist device for a manual wheelchair.

“We are, as an organization, trying to prepare for the increased interest in two credentials that CMS has so far adopted — the ATP and the ATS,” says Glenn Hedman, president of RESNA and director of the Assistive Technology Unit at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

A decade ago, RESNA devised the ATP credential for service providers involved in the analysis of a consumer's needs and training in the use of a particular device. The ATS is for those who are involved with the sale and service of rehab equipment, assistive technology and commercially available products or devices.

RESNA also offers a Rehabilitation Engineering Technologist credential for those “who apply engineering principles to the design, modification, customization and/or fabrication of assistive technology for persons with disabilities.”

The purpose of credentialing is two-fold, according to RESNA: to ensure consumer safeguards and to ensure consumer satisfaction.

Currently, RESNA has certified 2,700 people, according to Thomas Gorski, executive director. “We are geared up to increase those numbers significantly, if not double them, in short order,” he says. “We have increased the number of exams in 2007, and we are seeing enlarged numbers of people seeking information about the exam.”

Hedman says RESNA will offer the credentialing exam at least 25 times this year. “That's the baseline. We may offer it more. We're trying to make it available to people who are really interested.”