‘We’re listening’: ABIM axes ‘confusing’ MOC program requirement

Key takeaways:

• ABIM recently eliminated the requirement for physicians to complete MOC points every 2 years.
• The change was driven by physician feedback, which the organization has committed to listening to.

With the recent elimination of a maintenance of certification requirement, physicians should face less confusion in a streamlined process, according to experts.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) recently revised its maintenance of certification (MOC) program, eliminating the requirement for physicians to complete MOC points every 2 years.

“It was generating a lot of confusion,” Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, president and CEO of the ABIM told Healio. “It was adding no extra value.”

To be considered certified and participating in the MOC, physicians must still earn a total of 100 MOC points every 5 years and meet assessment requirements, according to ABIM’s website. However, because the ABIM MOC program has undergone several evolutions over the last few decades, the 2-year point requirement became an unnecessary vestige in a more streamlined process, McDonald said.

“It became apparent,” he said. “We heard from our diplomates enough over time that we could get rid of this, it would help simplify the program, and we would still retain the important recognition that doctors need to continue learning over time.”

Provided that all other MOC requirements have been met, roughly 12,000 physicians who are listed as certified but not participating in MOC because they missed the 2-year point requirement will now have their status updated, according to a press release from ABIM.

McDonald said that the reception has been very positive so far.

“People are delighted to know that there's one less thing they have to have on the requirement list,” he said.

Alan Dow, MD, MSHA, FACP, professor of medicine and division chief of hospital medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, agreed that this is an encouraging change.

“The process has been confusing and removing this requirement simplifies the process,” he told Healio. “In addition, MOC points seemed to have less value than the more rigorous [Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA)] questions. I am glad they made the change.”

He also said the modification will likely help the MOC process become more efficient.

“Physicians can focus their time on the higher yield aspects of continuing education like LKA questions,” he said. “Hopefully, physicians will also find the overall process less frustrating.”

Listening to feedback

The change was driven by feedback from physicians “that surfaced pretty quickly,” McDonald said.

“We’ve been listening to physicians a lot over the years,” he said. “One of the things I came in saying I was going to do is listen carefully to what people were saying, and we were hearing this through multiple channels.”

As well as bringing it to ABIM’s attention, McDonald noted that physicians are also the ones who made the decision. The ABIM council — a group overseeing the program’s standards while representing their specialty boards and disciplines — made the decision to remove the 2-year MOC points requirement he said.

Dow commended ABIM for listening to physician feedback.

“Medicine is and should always be a self-regulating profession,” he said. “I think it is good the ABIM is innovating, and part of that is listening to feedback about what works and what does not work. It is great the ABIM recognized MOC points were not working and moved on from that requirement.”

However, “there are a few minor downsides,” Dow noted.

“There might be a small disincentive to participate in CME for MOC, but physicians will still need to get CME credits for relicensure,” he said. “I guess you could argue that MOC questions add to the CME learning, but I do not think that benefit is a lot.”

Looking forward

In the future, McDonald said that ABIM will continue adjusting the MOC program based on feedback.

“There’s a lot going on,” he said. “We want to lead with evidence, so we’re looking into other components of the program.”

Recently, for example, the popular LKA changed slightly based on critiques from physicians.

McDonald said that, when the LKA was initially rolled out, the person taking the test would have the opportunity to offer feedback on the question before seeing the correct answer, but many physicians said they wanted to wait to give feedback until they knew whether their answer was wrong or right. Now that the process has changed, feedback has significantly increased.

“That's one way that literally thousands of doctors now are giving us feedback on a real-time basis,” he said. “We also have other channels for feedback through our societies. We invite society representatives to every single specialty board meeting, so for every discipline, we have a direct connection to doctors in those fields.”

Other ways to offer feedback include through ABIM’s website, communications team and request@abim.org.

“If somebody wants to send us feedback on any part of the program, we're always glad to receive it,” McDonald said. “We're listening, we're going to keep listening, and we'll keep evolving the program toward the physician’s needs as we hear what is most important to them, even while we continue to be committed to that mission of demonstrated medical knowledge.”

References:

• ABIM council. Available at: https://www.abim.org/about/boards-and-committees/governance/abim-council/. Accessed Nov. 23, 2024.
• ABIM MOC: Earning points. Available at: https://www.abim.org/maintenance-of-certification/earning-points/. Accessed Nov. 23, 2024.
• Physicians spoke and ABIM listened: 2-year MOC point requirement is eliminated. Available at: https://www.abim.org/media-center/press-releases/physicians-spoke-and-abim-listened-2-year-moc-point-requirement-is-eliminated. Accessed Nov. 23, 2024.