Physicians took on the maintenance of certification (MOC) process at the 2015 AMA Annual Meeting Monday, calling for more transparency and education surrounding the process.
One new policy, based on an AMA Council on Medical Education report, asks the American Board of Medical Specialties to develop “fiduciary standards” for its member boards. The policy asks the ABMS to urge full transparency related to the costs of preparing, administering, scoring and reporting MOC exams. It also seeks to ensure MOC “doesn’t lead to unintentional economic hardships.”
Other new policies direct the AMA to work with the ABMS toward the following changes:
- Any assessment should be used to guide physicians’ self-directed CME study.
- Specific content-based feedback after any assessment should be provided to physicians in a timely manner.
- Multiple options should be available for how an assessment could be structured to accommodate different learning styles.
- Physicians need to know what their specific MOC requirements are and the timing around when they must complete those requirements. The policy directs the AMA to ask the ABMS and its member boards to develop a system to alert physicians to the due dates of the multi-stage requirements of MOC.
- Part III of the MOC exam, typically known as the high-stakes exam, should be streamlined and improved. The policy also calls for exploring alternative formats.
In addition, physicians voted to work with the ABMS to ensure that its member boards “avoid attempts at restricting the legitimate scope of practice of board-certified physicians.” The policy is in response to a situation in 2013 when the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) posted on its website a new definition of an OB-GYN, including a limitation on the amount of time physicians spend performing non-gynecologic procedures. The board also stated that ABOG-certified physicians, with few exceptions, should treat female patients only, and that physicians who treated male patients could lose their ABOG certification.
While ABOG retracted its policy, physicians felt the AMA’s new MOC policy, based on another Council on Medical Education report, would protect against any future attempts by medical specialty boards to restrict legitimate scope of practice.
Related policy on MOC asks the newly launched Interstate Medical Licensure Compact commission to clarify that the intent of the compact’s model legislation requiring that a physician “holds” specialty certification refers only to initial certification and not MOC.
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