Quarterly News & Notes: Spring
2024
In this edition of News & Notes …
- Deadline Extended to 8/15/24 to Change Which Certificate(s) you are Maintaining
- Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment Use Grows; New Options in Hematology Coming in 2026
- Helping You Better Understand MOC
- How ABIM Creates Assessments
- Research Roundup: Associations Between Medical Knowledge and Patient Outcomes
Deadline Extended to 8/15/24 to Change Which Certificate(s) you are Maintaining
Your ABIM certification is a valuable signal to your peers and patients that you are an expert in your specialty. Maintaining certification takes commitment. We know for many physicians their practice changes over the course of their career and they may no longer wish to maintain certification in a discipline in which they no longer practice.
Having an active certificate allows ABIM to share with the world that you continue to be certified in that field and have demonstrated that you are doing the work of staying current. It also triggers fees to cover the work ABIM does to operate and maintain the various pathways you may choose from to demonstrate you have stayed current.
But you have a choice: you can deactivate any certificates you’ve earned. We’ve heard from some physicians that they were confused by or not aware of this option, so we’ve extended the deadline for 2024 to deactivate a certificate to 8/15/24.
Please know that simply choosing not to pay the annual Maintenance of Certification (MOC) fee will not automatically deactivate a certificate. You’ll need to inform ABIM that you intend to deactivate it via the Deactivate / Reactivate Form.
To deactivate a certificate, simply sign in to your Physician Portal at abim.org and complete the form found in the “My Assessments & Certifications” section of your Physician Portal home page. It will look like this:
Upon deactivation you will no longer be publicly reported as certified in that discipline and you will no longer be billed for future years.
If you deactivate your certificate by submitting the Deactivate / Reactivate Form by 8/15/24, we will:
- Credit your 2022, 2023 and 2024 annual MOC fees for the deactivated certificate to your ABIM account, if already paid; or,
- Remove your 2022, 2023 and 2024 annual MOC fees for the deactivated certificate, if not already paid.
Please note, ABIM cannot accommodate requests to credit/remove annual MOC fees for a certificate that is not deactivated, nor can we accommodate requests to credit/waive annual MOC fees before 2022. Any prepaid years for the deactivated certificate will be credited to your ABIM account.
If you have any questions about your certificate or the deactivation process we’re here to help at request@abim.org or 1-800-441-ABIM.
Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment Use Grows; New Options in Hematology Coming in 2026
The Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®) continues to be the favored assessment option for physicians, with more than 72,000 certificates being maintained through the LKA, including more than 42,300 certificates in internal medicine alone.
With two and a half months until enrollment closes in 2024, physicians have enrolled in the general Internal Medicine LKA to maintain more than 9,620 certificates, with an another 4,211 enrolled in the new Internal Medicine: Inpatient LKA. The traditional, 10-year MOC exam remains an option.
Since launching in 2022, proportionally more physicians have chosen the LKA over the traditional MOC exam each year. Overall, 80 percent of ABIM-certified physicians across all disciplines due for an assessment and eligible for the LKA are choosing it over the traditional, 10-year MOC exam, with more than 9,100 physicians participating in the LKA for two or more certificates.
To learn more about the experiences of physicians participating in the LKA visit the ABIM blog.
The chart below shows how physicians who are newly eligible to participate in MOC, have an assessment due in 2024, and have not previously enrolled in the LKA or Collaborative Maintenance Pathway, are choosing to maintain certification. The Collaborative Maintenance Pathway (CMP) is a joint program with the American College of Cardiology designed to offer cardiologists more choice, relevance and convenience in meeting their certification requirements.
More Focused LKA Options on the Horizon
In addition to the general LKA, ABIM is also exploring ways to recognize common, more focused practice areas through the LKA. In 2026, ABIM will introduce malignant and classical (nonmalignant) versions of the Hematology Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®). The general Hematology LKA will remain an option as well. Blueprints are expected to be updated and available for review in 2025. Anyone choosing one of these options will continue to be designated as certified in Hematology. More detailed information on the new options, along with guidance for physicians with assessments due in the next two years, is available here.
The Internal Medicine: Inpatient LKA was launched this year for internists who work primarily in a hospital setting. For those currently enrolled in the general Internal Medicine LKA who want to switch to the inpatient assessment, the deadline to switch is 6/30/24. Visit your Physician Portal for more information.
ABIM will continue to work to provide physicians with assessment options that are relevant to their practice, including the introduction of more focused assessments in other disciplines.
You can learn more about the success of the LKA and how it helps physicians stay current in an article that was authored by officers of ABIM’s Board of Directors and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as well as in Fierce Healthcare and Healio.
If you are thinking about enrolling in the LKA, the last day to do so this year is 6/30/24. The first quarter of LKA questions available have expired, which means you have 30 fewer questions available in the bank of questions you can leave unopened throughout the five-year cycle. You will begin with 70 in the bank. Sign in to your personalized Physician Portal to enroll, or visit the blog to learn what physicians are saying about their experiences with the LKA.
Helping You Better Understand MOC
With many competing demands on your time, we understand you may have questions about Maintenance of Certification (MOC), including how it works and what you need to do to keep your certification current.
Based on physician feedback, ABIM created a new visual that explains the MOC Program. It shows how to maintain certification, what the requirements are, how to earn points and more.
How ABIM Creates Assessments
There are a lot of steps involved in creating assessments that accurately measure physician knowledge. Learn more about how ABIM works through a series of stories that explain how assessments are created, approved and reviewed by experts both within and outside ABIM.
Research Roundup: Associations Between Medical Knowledge and Patient Outcomes
Physicians have asked for more information about how MOC supports them in practice. A new video from Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President for Academic and Medical Affairs, highlights important associations between medical knowledge and patient outcomes. “Physicians today have so many things to do that MOC can feel like ‘just one more thing,’ and knowing the time and effort invested in earning and maintaining certification, it’s fair to question its value in health care and to ask if there is any evidence suggesting that it is associated with patient relevant outcomes,” he said. “The good news is that there is a large and growing body of evidence that patients whose doctors demonstrate more medical knowledge through certification and MOC have better prognoses on a host of important outcomes.” Learn more about the evidence supporting MOC and positive patient outcomes in a video and accompanying blog post.
