Sleep Center Accreditation

Sleep Review magazine's November issue is now available online.
It has an article about accreditation; I agree with every word of it:

http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/issues/articles/2009-11_02.asp

Qualifications for Medical Directorship of a sleep center

A reader asks:

Can a Pulmonologist who is not board certified in sleep be a treating physician for the sleep center? I know the Medical Director and supervising physician has to board certified in sleep medicine.

Any specialty can be a treating physician.  According to the AASM, The medical director has to be board certified or board eligible in sleep medicine, unless there is a separate "board-certified (or eligible) sleep specialist" who does the quality control/interreliability scoring. 

Per AASM standards, if the doctor who interprets a sleep study isn't bc/be in sleep medicine, it must be overread by a doctor who is.

At the Hancock medical center sleep lab (a hospital-associated sleep lab), there is a general internist who is the medical director; I am the board certified sleep specialist and do all the sleep study interpretations.

For IDTF's each Medicare carrier has it's own standards of who can be medical director; some require that you be a pulmonologist or sleep specialist.

Some insurance companies have standards about which specialty can bill for a sleep study interpretation.

The AASM defines board eligibility in sleep medicine as having been accepted to sit for the sleep board examinations, your eligibility lasts for 2 examination cycles.  There are also special BE standards for newly graduated fellows.

Accreditation and Reimbursement

A reader asks, via email:
Is Somnus Sleep Clinic accredited by JCAHO and AASM? How do these processes work? Must one occur before the other? Is accreditation required for reimbursment?

Somnus Sleep Clinic is accredited by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). In Mississippi and many other states, AASM accreditation is necessary for a sleep center/lab to receive reimbursement for a sleep study from Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans. In some states, other insurance companies also have this restriction.

I don't know too much about JCAHO accreditation of sleep labs/centers. I believe that in some states (not MS), some insurance companies will reimburse for sleep studies at labs/centers accredited by either the AASM or JCAHO. I believe that JCAHO accreditation is mainly for hospital-based sleep labs/centers.

If any reader has more info about JCAHO accreditation for sleep labs/centers, please leave a comment