What information appears in the Program Summary tab?
The PARS Program Summary tab summarizes income and expenses of your CME program. The information shown on this tab is the same financial information that the ACCME previously collected through the Annual Report process. The Program Summary tab gives you the ability to see income and expenses for each year that your organization has entered data into PARS. Look here to see which “Reporting Year” is being shown.
You can view a different Reporting Year by clicking on the reporting year drop-down here [show selection of different reporting year and page refresh – then fade to white]. Please note that default view when you click on the Program and Summary tab will be to display the current reporting year, based on whether the deadline for year-end submission of data to the ACCME has passed. After the submission deadline has passed, the Program Summary tab will show the new reporting year. For example, until March 31, 2011 – which is the deadline to enter data for 2010 – the Reporting Year field on the Program Summary tab will default to “2010”. After the March 31st deadline, the Reporting Year field will default to 2011.
The financial data that you submit via PARS about your CME activities is summarized on the Program Summary tab. As you submit data for the income and expense fields of each CME activity – either through adding activities one at a time or through successful batch upload – PARS [highlight animation] will tally these amounts for the reporting year selected. The PARS application calculates these totals automatically and displays them here [highlight numbers displayed].
You’ll notice that the Program Summary also includes editable fields that allow you to record income and expenses for your overall CME Program. These fields are provided to allow you to account for income and expenses that are not attributable to individual CME activities, such as internal funding allocations that the CME unit receives and CME staff salaries.
For each reporting year, you are required to provide data in these fields marked with asterisks: Total amount of commercial support, Total advertising & exhibit income received, Total income received from other sources, and Total expenses of your CME unit. However, each of these required fields may be filled with a zero value if they do not apply to your organization.
How is the Program Summary tab used in year-end reporting to the ACCME?
Each year, accredited providers are required to enter data into PARS about both their CME activities and their overall CME program. Providers are also required to attest that their data entry for the current reporting year is complete—as an indication to the ACCME that their organization’s data is ready to be reviewed and included in the information that ACCME compiles and publishes about the CME system each year.
Here, at the bottom of the Program Summary tab, you will see this “Attestation” section. During the reporting cycle for each year, a button will be enabled that reads, “I Attest that Data is Complete for the [current] Reporting Year”. The example shown here is for the 2010 Reporting Year, which is reflected by the language on the attestation button.
Before clicking the attestation button, you will need to review the information entered for that Reporting Year to ensure it is complete and correct. Detailed instructions about year end reporting can be found within the PARS frequently asked questions on the ACCME website. The ACCME will notify you each year of the deadline for year-end submission of your organization’s data via PARS, and when it is time for your organization to review and complete the information – and attestation – on the Program Summary tab.
