NASS Fellowships: Deal or No Deal?

[nopain1234]

Definitely a bunch of whiners in this specialty

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[gaseous_clay]

Yes they are, and I would argue there are NASS programs superior for outpatient pain as compared to ACGME. No wasted time doing EMG and Psych. No wasted inpatient rotation.

You’re correct, but don’t forget some insurances won’t credential you and some hospitals won’t give you privileges in certain parts of the country if your fellowship wasn’t ACGME-accredited. ACGME = Visa card

 

[NJPAIN]

I have a hard time believing that if you are trained by docs who are internationally renowned in interventional spine care, whose contribution to the field cannot be denied, that insurance will deny you payment. But who knows. They should not pay IR docs or PAs/NPs. As stated so many times on here, our infighting will only lead to more chaos and “creep” from everywhere else. Tupac and biggie would have been much greater as a collaboration than as enemies. And even as enemies, they could have co existed and given each other respect to prosper

I’m impressed by the people you refer to and recognize who they are but honestly an insurance company has no clue.

 

[NJPAIN]

Definitely a bunch of whiners in this specialty

Weasels >> whiners

 

[Nodolor]

No ACGME spine surgery fellowships, so do you only send to neurosurgery?

Acgme is standardized (though a 20 epidural quota is kind of silly) to an extent which is why it is deemed better. Other fellowships are all over the place and sometimes call themselves fellowships just to have indentured servants.

We have this argument on here frequently. If you want a well rounded pain experience, go for the acgme. Get your month of psych, anesthesia, pmr, Neuro, etc. if you want to work with primarily ortho or mak stuff, go the nass route. Nass is mostly pmr guys anyway, since many many acgme institutions prefer anesthesia grads, less spots for pmr. So the pmr guys just took their ball and play on a different court in the same playground.

Actually there are 16 ACGME Spine Surgery Fellowships last time I looked ......Some are quite random and exclude great Spine Programs

 

[SeniorWrangler]

Most pain providers are interventionalists anyway, I’m not sure how much difference it makes.

I have to ask — how does it work to be a pain specialist and not have any training in opioids? Do you keep a mid-level around to prescribe or is the practice 100% needlework?