A Refresher on Your 5-Year, 100 MOC Point Requirement
At ABIM, we want to do more to set you up for success in maintaining your board certification, particularly as we approach the end of 2018. As a refresher: In 2013, ABIM announced that physicians earning a new certificate or renewing a certificate had to earn 100 MOC points every five years to stay certified.
So, rather than having an expiration date for a certificate, a physician’s certification status is contingent on participation in the MOC program to ensure continuous engagement in medical education.
This makes 12/31/2018 a particularly important date, since it is the first time many physicians could face a change to their certification status if they are not meeting their 5-year point requirement—or attestation requirement for certificates with a procedural or encounter requirement. Though expiration dates for any certificate earned prior to 2013 will still be honored and will not result in a certification status change, your MOC status could change to “Not Participating” for those particular certifications.
In an effort to reduce complexities across the MOC program, in 2018 ABIM announced diplomates can meet their 100 MOC point requirement using any combination of approved activities.
Not only do we want to provide ways for you to help focus your professional development activities, but we also want to make sure that you’re getting credit for the things you already do as part of your commitment to lifelong learning. Check out the list below to see the many ways you can earn MOC points.
- If you complete one of ABIM’s Medical Knowledge modules, you can earn 10 MOC points.
- When you complete a QI/PI activity through the ABMS Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program or the Approved Quality Improvement Program , you can earn up to 30 MOC points.
- Earn CME credits and MOC points for thousands of activities in ACCME’s CME Finder. Most ABIM products also earn CME credit.
- Earn MOC points for the searching you do to support your clinical decisions at the point-of-care, including a variety of internet search tools such as UpToDate®.
- If you’re a fellow, you’ll earn 20 MOC points for each year of eligible fellowship training.
- When you take an MOC assessment, you earn 20 MOC points in Medical Knowledge.
- If you’re certified by another ABMS board, our ABIM MOC point requirement can be waived if you are currently certified by and meeting the MOC requirements of that board.
- If you earn a new subspecialty certificate, your current 100 point requirement will be met as a result of passing your initial subspecialty exam.
Watch the video below to see how ABIM’s Board Members earn points.
Learn more about your points requirements by going to abim.org/points or signing into your Physician Portal.
