ABIM Announces Changes in Policy for Lapsed Certificates & MOC Point Requirements

Late last week, the American Board of Internal Medicine sent its Fall 2018 Quarterly News and Notes to all ABIM diplomates. Included in that newsletter were reminders regarding end-of-year deadlines as well as important information regarding changes in policy for those with lapsed certificates and a simplified MOC point requirement policy.

ABIM announced in that newsletter that diplomates with lapsed certificates will be able to meet their assessment requirement via the Knowledge Check-In. Beginning in 2019, physicians who let a certificate lapse will be able to meet their assessment requirement by passing two consecutive Knowledge Check-Ins. According to the newsletter, this new policy is a direct result of feedback ABIM received from the physician community.

Also announced was a simplified MOC point requirement policy. In an effort to reduce complexities across the MOC program, ABIM will allow diplomates to meet their 100 MOC point requirement using any combination of Medical Knowledge and Practice Assessment points. This means physicians are no longer required to earn at least 20 points in Medical Knowledge. ABIM’s website and Physician Portal will be updated soon to reflect the simplified requirement. All diplomates are urged to login to the ABIM physician portal to check their MOC status.

An accompanying blog post covering these topics can also be found on the ABIM website at:http://blog.abim.org/.

Below are deadlines and resources to help you prepare for the upcoming changes.

Taking the Traditional MOC (10-Year) Exam in 2019? Exam dates are:

• May 15, 2019 (Registration Dec. 1, 2018 through Feb. 2, 2019)
• Oct. 24, 2019 (Registration Dec. 1, 2018 through Aug. 15, 2019)

Taking the Knowledge Check-In in 2019? Exam dates are:

• May 4 or 9, 2019 (Registration Dec. 1, 2018 through Mar. 15, 2019)
• Nov. 12 or 15, 2019 (Registration Dec. 1, 2018 through Sept.15, 2019)

Not sure which is the best option? Read about Knowledge Check-In scenarios and which physicians would benefit from taking the Check-In in 2019 in this past IDSA News article.

UpToDate®, the “open book” resource, can be used by those taking either the 10-year exam OR the Knowledge Check-In. It can also be used as a practice tool, and diplomates can earn MOC credits for using it as practice.

Looking for MOC Credits? We Have What You Need!

Be sure to claim credits for attending IDWeek 2018 before the Nov. 26 deadline.

Check out IDSA MOC modules:







IDSA and HIVMA offer six MOC Modules on the following topics:

• Hepatitis C (free to members)
• Adult Vaccines
• Travel and Tropical Medicine
• Infection Control (meets the ABIM Patient Safety requirement)
• General Infectious Diseases
• HIV Medicine in Clinical Practice
• Infections in Non-HIV Immunocompromised Host

Access them here!