National Maritime Center improves medical review process.

One of the worst frustrations mariners encounter during the licensing process is the painstaking medical review. And the worst part about that was that there was no one at the NMC to actually speak to about questions or concerns regarding medical review. Well mariners have spoken up and the NMC has answered with the addition of a medical review officer available through the help desk to finally answer those tough questions.


Actions to Improve Mariner Medical Evaluations Processing April 12, 2011

(For the complete memo visit us at MyCaptainsclass.com)

The Commanding Officer of the National Maritime Center (NMC) has made several changes within the Mariner Medical Evaluations Division in order to improve customer service, while ensuring marine and public safety remains the priority for Mariner credentialing at the NMC.

1) Add a Mariner Medical Point of Contact: The NMC has assigned a full-lime, on-call government medical evaluator to receive calls from mariners and their physicians regarding their submitted applications. They can be contacted through the NMC Help Desk at 1-888-427-5662

2) Increase in Government Medical Personnel: Over the past 24 months. the Coast Guard has significantly increased the number of permanent government medical screeners, evaluators and reviewers.

3) New Medical Services Contract: In December of 2010, the Coast Guard awarded a new Medical Evaluations and Services contract to RGB Group Inc. of Miami, Florida. Adjustments to the review and processing of medical applications have been transitioned to the new contract provider and many revisions and improvements.

4) Adjustments to Medical Screening Procedures: Within the past several weeks, the NMC has conducted processing reviews in the medical state of application processing. These reviews have identified some measures for adjustment and alignment with the regulations. Incomplete medical applications remain the single largest cause for delays.
Updates will be made to the medical information on the NMC website to more clearly explain requirements and to improve our customer service in this area. Currently the average net processing for mariners without medical issues or lower risk medical reviews remains at around 16 days.