If your 2026 employer CME stipend expires on December 31, you may have less time than you think to use it. The same is true if you are approaching the end of an NCCPA certification maintenance cycle or preparing to apply for the PANRE.
The practical solution is to identify what your employer benefit covers, confirm your NCCPA credit requirements, and purchase a course that provides meaningful exam preparation, not a collection of unrelated activities selected at the last minute.
For physician assistants, the PANRE Review Course is $399.99, provides 30 months of access, and offers up to 100 AAPA Category 1 CME credits through the PANRE Clinical Review Module. The course includes 1,200+ practice questions across five full-length 240-question exams, aligned with the NCCPA Blueprint.
Two separate deadlines commonly create confusion.
Employer CME benefits may be structured as:
Many benefits are use-it-or-lose-it. An unused balance may not roll over, and a purchase made after the deadline may not qualify even if you intended to use it for professional education.
Check your policy for:
If the deadline is approaching, purchase before the cutoff and retain the course information required by your employer’s reimbursement process.
NCCPA requires certified PAs to earn and log 100 total CME credits during each two-year cycle, including at least 50 Category 1 CME credits. The remaining credits may be Category 1, Category 2, or a combination.
A separate PANRE eligibility requirement may apply if you are using the recertification examination pathway. PAs generally need 100 Category 1 CME credits earned during the two years immediately before the PANRE application date. Confirm your specific dates and requirements directly with NCCPA’s continuing medical education guidance.
Your employer’s stipend deadline and your NCCPA cycle deadline are not necessarily the same. Plan for both.
The PANRE Review Course is designed to combine exam preparation and CME completion in one activity.
Course price: $399.99
Access period: 30 months
AAPA Category 1 CME: Up to 100 credits through the PANRE Clinical Review Module
Practice questions: 1,200+ questions across five 240-question exams
Exam format: Five-answer multiple-choice questions with explanations
Content alignment: NCCPA Blueprint coverage across the major organ systems and task areas
At the base price, the math is approximately $4.00 per available Category 1 CME credit. More importantly, the purchase gives you a structured review resource that can support PANRE preparation over multiple years.
The 30-month access period is useful when your employer stipend and certification cycle do not align. You can purchase before the current stipend expires, complete the activity over time, and use the material to prepare for an upcoming recertification examination.
The course includes:
The 100 Category 1 credits come specifically from the PANRE Clinical Review Module. They are not generated by the gift card option or by unrelated products in the CME catalog.
CME Review Courses also offers optional Amazon and Apple gift card add-ons from $100 to $1,500.
These are paid add-ons selected at checkout. They are not free gifts, rebates, or additional CME. They do not increase the number of credits awarded by the course.
Examples:
| Purchase | Total before applicable taxes | CME available |
|---|---|---|
| PANRE Review Course only | $399.99 | Up to 100 AAPA Category 1 credits |
| Course + $100 gift card | $499.99 | Up to 100 AAPA Category 1 credits |
| Course + $500 gift card | $899.99 | Up to 100 AAPA Category 1 credits |
| Course + $1,000 gift card | $1,399.99 | Up to 100 AAPA Category 1 credits |
The gift card selection allows you to match the total purchase to the amount available in your CME budget. Select the option only if your employer permits that type of add-on under its CME policy.
See the current PANRE Review Course with Gift Card listing for available options and course details.
Do not wait until the final week of the year to complete 100 credits. The better approach is to use the 30-month access period strategically:
A reasonable schedule is to complete one major section each month, followed by a full-length practice exam at regular intervals. This creates a sustained review plan instead of a single high-volume study session.
CME Review Courses offers 14 courses with 468.75 total AAPA Category 1 credits across the catalog. The full catalog includes clinical areas such as emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, dermatology, neurology, orthopedics, psychiatry, and OB/GYN. The PANRE Review Course is the course specifically associated with the 100-credit PANRE Clinical Review Module.
The PANRE Review Course carries AAPA Category 1 CME for PAs who complete the activity requirements.
Physicians and nurse practitioners should not automatically assume that AAPA Category 1 credit will be treated the same way under their own certification or licensure requirements.
Verify the applicable rules before purchasing, particularly if you are not a PA.
Your patient is a 42-year-old woman who presents with acute dyspnea and pleuritic chest pain three days after knee surgery. HR is 118/min, BP is 128/76 mm Hg, RR is 26/min, and SaO₂ is 91% on room air. She has unilateral calf swelling and tenderness. ECG shows sinus tachycardia. What is the most appropriate next diagnostic test?
A. D-dimer assay
B. CT pulmonary angiography
C. Transthoracic echocardiography
D. Chest radiograph only
E. Lower-extremity venous ultrasound only
CT pulmonary angiography is correct because this patient has a high pretest probability for pulmonary embolism based on recent surgery, tachycardia, hypoxemia, pleuritic chest pain, and unilateral leg findings. In a hemodynamically stable patient, CT pulmonary angiography provides direct evaluation of the pulmonary vasculature.
A D-dimer is not useful when the clinical probability is high. Transthoracic echocardiography can identify RV strain and is valuable in an unstable patient, but it does not replace definitive imaging in this stable presentation. A chest radiograph may help evaluate alternative diagnoses but cannot exclude PE. Lower-extremity ultrasound can support the diagnosis if positive, but CT pulmonary angiography is the preferred next study when there is no contraindication.
Before your 2026 CME budget expires:
The PANRE Review Course provides a direct way for PAs to combine recertification preparation with up to 100 AAPA Category 1 CME credits in one purchase. The optional Amazon or Apple gift card add-on can be selected to match an eligible CME budget, but it does not add credits.
PAtopia is a separate PA-student exam-preparation platform. It covers the PANCE, PACKRAT, EOC, and all seven PAEA End of Rotation exams. It does not provide the 100 AAPA Category 1 CME credits associated with the PANRE Clinical Review Module.
Access PAtopia on the web, or download the apps:
EEAT Author Box
Jeremy Boroff, MPAS, PA-C
Jeremy Boroff is a physician assistant with 24 years of Emergency Medicine experience. He develops medical education and board-review content for physician assistants, including PANRE preparation, clinical CME, and PA-student examination resources. His work emphasizes practical clinical reasoning, current guideline-based management, and exam-relevant application.
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