Certified Geriatric Care Manager™ (CGCM™)
The International Commission on Health Care Certification™ (ICHCC™) is proud of its heritage, being the oldest and largest certification agency in the United States and Canada for Life Care Planning and in the United States for Medicare Set-aside Consultants and allocators.
For the convenience of the reader, this Certified Geriatric Care Manager™ page provides links to pages pertinent to the CGCM™ credential. You will find direct access links to the CGCM™ application page, the CGCM™ examination page, and the CGCM™ recertification page. Please click on the appropriate menu button for the item you need.
Purpose
The Certified Geriatric Care Manager™(CGCM™) credential is dedicated to the credentialing of rehabilitation and health and human services professionals who provide case/ care management services to elderly individuals with health and/or disability issues. This credential assesses one's knowledge of care planning and care management principles and practices for public persons who are defined by the U.S. government standards as meeting elderly criteria, as well as those elderly persons who have a disability.
Qualifications
Qualifying for the Certified Geriatric Care Manager™ (CGCM™) credential is based upon 2 factors; 1) meeting the definition of a "Qualified Healthcare Provider, and 2) the applicant's education and training. Before reviewing the educational and training experience component, one must ensure that he or she meets the International Commission on Health Care Certification's definition of "Qualified Health Care Professional." The "Qualified Health Care Professional" definition and a listing of its criteria are detailed in the ICHCC™ Standards and Guidelines Manual available for download on the home page of this web site. All certification candidates should have this manual in his or her library if certification is a true goal.
The ICHCC™ requires the following criteria to be met by all candidates in order to qualify to sit for the examination:
- Each Candidate must have the minimum of a Bachelor's degree in a healthcare related field
- Each candidate must have a minimum of 120 hours of post-graduate or post-specialty degree training in geriatric care management or in areas that can be applied to the development and management of a care plan for and elderly person, or pertain to the service delivery applied to geriatric care management. There must be 16 hours of training specific to a basic orientation, methodology, and standards of practice in geriatric care management within the required120 hours. The 120 hours may be obtained through online training/educational programs as well as onsite presentations and conferences. Additionally, the following educational components by a ICHCC™ approved CGCM™ program are required:
- Geriatric Care Management/case management Methodology and Concepts
- A module in financial planning issues and financial maintenance for older adults
- Facility living and placement issues
- Older adult financial and daily-living resources
- Ethical, legal, and business issues in older adult care management
- Psychological aspects of aging
- Client/ patient assessment
- Care planning and communication
- Training hours acquired over a time frame of 5 years from the date of application are counted as valid for consideration. Documentation of such coursework and participation verification is required in the form of attendance verification forms and/or curriculum documentation from the training agency. Each candidate must:
- meet the minimum academic requirements for their designated health care related profession
- be certified, licensed, or meet the legal mandates of the candidate's respective state that allow him or her to practice service delivery within the definition of his or her designated healthcare related profession.
Final approval of any applications with ambiguity regarding training and/or experience will be left to the discretion of the Commissioners following a thorough review of the respective applications. The opinion of the Commissioners is final.
- Each candidate must hold the entry level academic degree or certificate/diploma for their profession.
In addition each candidate must document at least 50 hours of clinical experience in the areas enumerated below. Many of the training programs include these 50 hours as part of the 120 hour requirement and the hours may be a part of the professional's work duties
- Care plan development, monitoring and evaluation
- Referral of formal and informal services
Recertification
For additional information concerning the renewal process, please review the ICHCC™ Practice Standards and Guidelines, pages 17 through 23. The guidelines can be found under "Resources" in the top horizontal menu bar as well as in several additional locations on the website.
Approved Renewal CEU Hours for all ICHCC™ Certifications can be found by choosing "HOME" in the top menu bar of the ICHCC™ website and then choosing "News and Events", which lists approved CEU hours, as well as the "Google Calendar" that posts all approved CEU hours. In addition, AAACEUS offers a variety of ICHCC™ approved CEU hours.
Your CGCM™ renewal application can be emailed to the ICHCC™ (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), faxed to the ICHCC™ (1-804-378-7267) or mailed. You may also pay your renewal fee on the ICHCC™ website by choosing the Shopping Cart icon in the top right hand corner of the page.
The ICHCC™ certification maintenance program extends the status of the CGCM™ credential at three (3) year intervals. Options for renewal are the same as they are for the CLCP™/CCLCP™ and MSCC™ credentials, and include:
- Option One: Documentation of 15 clock hours of pre-approved and post-approved education
- Option Two: Re-examination (Please note that if the certificant's credential is expired, re-examination is not an option.)
The option one renewal requirement is a total of 15 clock hours of approved education/training for each three-year period. 5 of the 15 hours need to be in ethics. Documentation is required to validate that the education or training has been successfully completed in one or more of the focus areas related to geriatric case management. For additional information on the renewal process, please review pages 18 - 23 in the ICHCC™ Practice Standards and Guidelines. The guidelines can be found under "Resources" which is located in the top horizontal menu bar of the website.
Option One:
1) Submit documentation of 15 hours of pre-approved education. If a course was pre-approved, the CGCM™ professional only needs to send the attendance verification and the CGCM™ renewal form. The fee is $250. If the CGCM™ professional attended a program which was not approved for CGCM™ hours, the required documentation must be submitted and is subject to review. This includes an attendance verification/certificate of completion as well as information on the training such as a course brochure or course agenda. The fee for recertification increases to $300 regardless of whether or not there is just one program or 10 or more programs that do not qualify as "pre-approved" by the ICHCC™.
Option Two:
2) Re-examination. The fee is $445 and covers both the examination fee and certification renewal. (If a certificant's credential has already expired, re-examination is not an option.)
If the renewal candidate does not desire to retest, but also lacks the necessary 30 hours of CEU’s, then the candidate can apply for an extension. This is available to CGCM™ candidates who have completed and submitted 5 of the 15 hours required for maintenance. A six (6) month extension may be granted. The fee is $100.
CGCM™ Commissioners
- Andrew Zeldin, MS, CGCM™ Chairperson
- Beth Bentz, MS, CGCM™
- Amanda Glynn, MHS, CRC, MSCC™, CGCM™
- Linda Shields, MSW, CGCM™
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