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Professional- licensure, reimbursement, other

Licensure/Accreditation (webinar f/up)
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Licensure is government regulation of a profession restricting practice of that profession to those who have specific set of prerequisites and demonstrated minimum competency. Licensure is primarily done to protect the public from harm arising from the unregulated practice of a profession.


Accreditation is the third party verification of either the educational process (Programmatic accreditation) which ensures students are adequately prepared to perform a job, or the certification process itself to ensure the assessment of competency is fair, reliable and valid.


At this time, there are only two clinically focused, externally accredited, clinically focused certifications available in the United States. The ACSM CEP (established in 1974) and the ACE MES (established in 2015). Naturally any efforts by ACSM or CEPA, as an ACSM affiliate society, will focus on the ACSM credential. CEPA is unaware of any plans by ACE regarding their certification.

This question was posted during the CEPA webinar on licensure & reimbursement (Jan 2021). What is the difference between licensure and accreditation? And will these be based solely on an ACSM credential?

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