Welcome to Keith Mauney and Associates Ultrasound Training Institutes 800.845.3484
Founded 1981, Southwestern University of Texas
Medical School
INSTITUTIONALLY & COMMERCIALLY INDEPENDENT


800.845.3484            972.353.3200            Fax: 817.577.4250

  Accelerated Instruction. Uncompromised Content.






                                                                               In economically uncertain times, the best investment you can make is in yourself.
                                                                                                                                                                                        - Warren Buffet

 

Vascular diagnostics in wound care is usually an outsourced service.  We just feel that it should be a ready tool, to frame up and follow up patient care on both sides of the capillary.
It’s about more than just another procedure to manage, it’s about  getting immediate answers to immediate questions.  And as the U.S. payer system moves closer to an outpatient DRG model, your time is going to be the new currency.

Your Team revolves around these facts:

•  The primary factor in nutritive capillary flow is venous resistance, and venous ablation and valvuloplasty can positively affect it.


• Arterial complications in metabolic disorders are key, but traditional noninvasive diagnostics don’t answer the critical question, What’s the perfusion pressure in the distal foot?  Diabetics often denigrate the credibility of the usual vascular tests.


As the clinical need stays the same and the reimbursement model changes, you may soon find you’ll be able to more

accurately and concisely define microcirculatory dynamics and save everyone time by simply bringing targeted vascular diagnostics in-house.Capitalization is minor, the learning curve is short, and the credentialing process is direct.  96% of physicians pass the Registered Physician Vascular Interpretation Exam on the first try.

Perhaps today is not the day to take a serious look at all of this.  But the pace and course of provider payment is changing fast.

This is not the time to be complacent.  Make a mental note to visit us again.  Our hands-on course oh this subject is geared to you the physician and/or your staff.  And our Vascular Interpretation course frames up just the interpretive information you need, over a weekend.

Contact us.  We’ll be glad to steer you in your proper next step and/or we’ll walk you through the entire process.  Our last forty years in vascular medicine and ultrasound diagnostics are ready to turn all around you and your Team.  We’re at your service.


 

Let us Help You Get Certified in Vascular Ultrasound

 

You need at least fifteen hours of Category I instruction in vascular ultrasound to fulfill most states’ requirements to interpret (or perform) vascular studies.  With us, these will be the most productive fifteen hours you can ever find.

Expert Faculty.  Keith Mauney will work with you individually as you join a small group of peers in class; he’ll focus nearly forty years of experience on your goal.  Without the usual charts and 
graphs, he’ll cut to the core of every element of every test, covering the practical information you’ll need, providing you with the Category I CME hours you require.

We know what you want.  And we won’t waste a minute of your time.  We started our courses for physicians in 1983, long before national standards came to be.  And our content has matched and exceeded the science ever since.

Quick In and Out. It’s easy and inexpensive to get to us: your meeting will be fifteen minutes from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport or Love Field, so you can  fly in and out over a weekend.  The most nonstop flights, in the most competitive airfare market in the country.  Be sure to reserve your Executive Car Service.

Don’t Leave the Office. You can save even more time.  Let us hold this course in your own conference room, at a schedule that suits yours: over a weekend or after hours.  Your investment is paid off by your efficiency and the cost can be spread over other participants in your group.  Bring the entire staff up to speed at once.  We can even combine sonographer training and community physician awareness training before or after your own, to ensure your practice is operating at the highest level.  Learn more:
Call on us now.
 
Credentialing Facts Briefing
Physicians and Abdominal/Obstetric/Breast Ultrasound
There is presently no Medicare directive requiring sonographer certification as a prerequisite to reimbursement for these procedures.  Oregon, New Mexico have state law requiring all sonographers to be credentialed to practice in any field.  Other states are considering similar actions.  Private insurance carriers may have separate policies.

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine has recommended guidelines in place to ensure the highest standard of facility compliance.  Learn more.

Physicians and Cardiac Ultrasound
Medicare is evolving its policies state by state; many states already require technologist credentialing as a condition for reimbursement.  Physician credentialing is required in some, but not all states as a prerequisite to reimbursement by Medicare.  Learn more.  

Private payers are adopting more rigorous policies, but uniformity across the nation is still years away; ICAEL posts the most current positions of the nations largest private payers on its site here

Eventually the entire US will follow suit.  The National Board of Echocardiography is currently the only credentialing board for doctors and prerequisites include either cardiovascular board certification or specialized post graduate medical training in cardiovascular medicine, plus interpretation experience.

Physicians and Vascular Ultrasound (all applications)
Medicare has directives throughout the entire United States that require physicians interpreting vascular ultrasound provide evidence of specialized training, specific to the technology.  Sonographers performing vascular ultrasound studies must either possess certification un vascular ultrasound or (in some states) perform the exam under the supervision of a certified sonographer. 

Inspect your state’s specific Medicare policy for both physicians and technologists here.  Private insurance carriers may have different policies. ICAVL no longer posts information from private insurance carriers; you will need to contact them directly for current or pending policy.  In general, most require at least 10-15 hours of focused training int the specialty area.

Some states now require formal certification for physicians to read.  Most hospitals‘ labs are ICAVL credentialed, which requires reading physicians to have met formal training standards in medical school or informally, by the following
pathway:
       • 40+ hours of Category 1 CME specific to vascular testing
         within the prior three years, plus
       • 8 hours of supervised practical experience or
         observation in a credentialed vascular laboratory, and
         also
       • documentation of 100 cases interpreted and overread by
         a credentialed-lab physician, in each specialty area of
         application.  Learn more.

Only one agency can credential primary care physicians in all areas of vascular ultrasound interpretation.  As we noted above, this credential is presently required only in certain states.  The American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) offers the Registered Physician Vascular Interpretation credential; it has a 96% pass rate. Learn more.

Specifically Regarding Facilities Credentialing
Two separate agencies credential echocardiography and vascular laboratory services: ICAEL and ICAVL, respectively.  Private offices and hospitals providing vascular ultrasound studies (whether in conjunction with echocardiography or as a standalone service) should be--and will eventually be 
required to be--credentialed by the appropriate agency.

The entire body of certification guidelines can now be downloaded for free: ICAEL Guidelines and ICAVL Guidelines.  The process is still voluntary, and payment is still allowed in non-credentialed labs provided physician and sonographer credentialing criteria have been met.  This will likely change by 2012.


Sonographer Credentialing
Three different bodies can credential sonographers in vascular ultrasound: the ARDMS, CCI, or the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.  The ARDMS and CCI credentials are equally recognized by Medicare in all states and territories; they have nearly equal pass/fail rates and test on the same content.  The ASRT credential is open only to qualified registered radiologic technologists and is not presently recognized by Medicare in all fifty states.

The prerequisites for the ARDMS and CCI are unique to the various entry-level backgrounds and experience.  You can quickly navigate the current prerequisites (always subject to change) with the color-coded charts here.

Our post graduate courses move you closer to all of these goals.



Our Value Proposition for You
We’re the very best investment of training time and money for your employee. 

We’ll build on their knowledge by reaffirming it then expanding it.  We’ll guide them into a core skills set congruent with standard protocols so they’ll return ready to fit into your own.  We’ll build their confidence and correct their mistakes.

Our course content is congruent with all national standards.  Our class experience exceeds it.   We’ll return them to you ready to grow into the production you need.   We can’t implant in them the years of experience it takes to become expert but we will shortcut months of learning to become independent, confident, and authoritative quickly.

The investment is well placed:

•   Direct flights from every large city in North America in the
    most competitive priced air markets.


•   No distractions from learning: no bikinis, speedos, beach
    bars, or parties.  Rather, a professional, safe, respectful
    setting for your employee’s professional development.


•   The entire course held at the host hotel, with discounted
    rates.  All suite property, complete with full kitchens.  Fifteen
    minutes from the airport to the conference site front desk.


•   AMA Category I continuing medical education credit gives
    your employee the focused, accredited training hours to
    prepare for and maintain formal certification.

•   Hands-on courses commit up to four hours a day in our
    hands-on Scan Lab and the Lab is open around the clock
    for independent practice.


•   Course reference materials are in depth and support your
    staff for years to come.



•   Breakfast is complimentary every day; lunch is provided
    each day of the course.  In-room dining and grocery delivery
    service at the hotel; restaurants within safe walking
    distance.  



•   Post conference support goes on for life, for free.  

   
Secure your investment by ensuring your employee’s
commitment: download an employer/employee contract
form
, exchanging your training investment for their time commitment.

If you have a larger project involving several staff, or sonographers and physicians, you might find that our on-site training option is more effective.  We bring every necessary element of the coursework to you and conduct it in your space, on your schedule, and use your patients as learning models.  You benefit by saving on travel costs, absentee pay, and lost productivity.

Compare us to our colleagues in training.  Inspect our public courses, and the ones we’ve got upcoming (and tell us whatever else you think we should create).  Then contact us for answers to any concern or question you might have.  We’re passionate about your success and grateful  for the chance to serve.  

Learn more: FAQ’s


 
We differentiate ourselves from every other teaching institution by eliminating the most common barriers to hand-eye and bioinformatics competence.  The average compression ratio for our courses is 12:1; twelve years of experience to one day in class.  Comprehensive written materials, integrated with the live experience, amplify and concrete learning for years to come.

Post conference mentoring continues for free, for life.
We offer public courses, private tutorials, and practice/industry consultation on all aspects pertaining to the clinical research, engineering, business, and governmental issues surrounding the field.

Contact us; we’re at your service and glad to help, in any way at all.



Your colleagues throughout the country have already profited from the benefits of our on-site training.



Ultrasound can leverage your time exponentially.
Will you master the process?