• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

News and briefs: AMA warns against burdening physicians with MOL requirements

Credentialing Resource Center Insider, July 13, 2012

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Insider!

At its annual meeting last month, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted policies to say that medical licensure should not be tied to board certification and the requirements for maintaining certification should not become overly burdensome for physicians.

The AMA’s goal is to make sure that the evolving rules are flexible and add value to physicians’ ability to care for patients, said Lynne Kirk, MD, a member of the AMA Council on Medical Education and professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, in an article on admednews.com.

At the beginning of 2012, the American Board of Medical Specialties tightened its rules regarding board eligibility by shortening the length of time physicians have to become board certified after completing residency. 

In order to remain board certified, physicians must complete maintenance of licensure; individual specialty boards set the requirements for license maintenance. AMA is encouraging these boards to keep maintenance of licensure (MOL) from creating financial and time constraints for physicians, since those constraints may push them into early retirement or prevent them from re-entering the workforce. With a physician shortage already in place, the AMA says MOL requirements must be monitored to see how they affect physicians’ practice decisions.

Seventy-eight percent of physicians are board certified. Humayun Chaudhry, DO, president and CEO of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), says the board has no plans to require physicians to become board certified. The FSMB will launch pilot programs with various specialty boards to learn what types of MOL educational activities already exist and what resources are needed to implement new MOL requirements.
 

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Insider!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive