NBPAS offers alternative to MOC

The National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) has announced an alternative to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program for continued certification in a medical specialty. The NBPAS recertification application takes less than 15 minutes to complete, costs less, and its requirements provide the most appropriate metric for continued certification, according to the NBPAS website.

“Many physicians believe recent changes [to the MOC program] requiring physicians engage in various medical knowledge, practice-assessment, and patient-safety activities as well as recertification exams do not provide optimal use of physician’s time. Furthermore, no high quality data exist to justify these labor intensive and expensive activities,”the NBPAS stated.

NBPAS requirements include:

• Candidates must have been previously certified by an ABMS member board.
• Candidates must have a valid, unrestricted license to practice medicine in at least one US state.
• Candidates must have completed a minimum of 50 hours of continuing medical education (CME) within the past 24 months, provided by a recognized provider of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. CME must be related to one or more of the specialties in which the candidate is applying. Re-entry for physicians with lapsed certification requires 100 hours of CME with the past 24 months. Fellows-in-training are exempt.