During November’s American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates (HOD) meeting in November, many resolutions and recommendations were adopted, some of which we have previously touched upon.
In addition to the aforementioned HOD actions relating to price control measures on pharmaceutical products and banning direct to consumer advertising, the AMA House of Delegates also adopted some changes recommended by the Council on Medical Education Report. Council on Medical Education Report 2 reviewed and consolidated existing AMA policy on Maintenance of Certification (MOC), Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC) and Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) to ensure that the policies are current and coherent.
AMA Principles on Maintenance of Certification (MOC)
The AMA voted to amend Policy H-275.924, Maintenance of Certification. Some of the changes made were for clarification purposes, such as the change that now requires any changes to the MOC process for a given medical specialty board to occur no more frequently than the “intervals used by that specialty board” for MOC. Previously that requirement had used “intervals used by each board” for MOC, possibly creating some confusion as to whether the longest interval by any specialty board controlled, or the interval used by the specialty board in question.
A new statement was added into the policy, #10. The new statement reads,
“In relation to MOC Part II, our AMA continues to support and promote the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA) Credit system as one of the three major credit systems that comprise the foundation for continuing medical education in the U.S., including the Performance Improvement CME (PICME) format; and continues to develop relationships and agreements that may lead standards accepted by all U.S. licensing boards, specialty boards, hospital credentialing bodies and all other entities requiring evidence of physician CME.”
MOC’s importance was also clarified, with the AMA now saying that MOC is
“but one component to promote patient safety and quality. Health care is a team effort, and changes to MOC should not create an unrealistic expectation that lapses in patient safety are primarily failures of individual physicians.”
Another change made was the addition of the following statement, “Our AMA will include early career physicians when nominating individuals to the Boards of Directors for ABMS member boards.”
Additionally, the AMA has also advocated policy so that physicians with lifetime board certification are no longer required to seek recertification and no qualifiers or restrictions should be placed on diplomats with lifetime board certification recognized by the ABMS related to their participation in MOC.
Members of the AMA House of Delegates are encourage to increase awareness of these, and other proposed changes to physician self-regulation, through their specialty organizations and other professional member groups.
AMA Principles on Maintenance of Licensure (MOL)
The AMA House of Delegates recommended a new chunk of requirements be added to these principles.
One new requirement reflects the aforementioned change in MOC above. The new requirement asks that the AMA:
“Continue to support and promote the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA) Credit system as one of the three major CME credit systems that comprise the foundation for continuing medical education in the U.S., including the Performance Improvement CME (PICME) format, and continue to develop relationships and agreements that may lead to standards accepted by all U.S. licensing boards, specialty boards, hospital credentialing bodies, and other entities requiring evidence of physician CME as part of the process for MOL.”
Additionally, the AMA is to advocate that if state medical boards move forward with a more intense or rigorous MOL program, each state medical board shall be required to accept evidence of successful ongoing participation in the ABMS MOC and AOA-Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists (AOA-BOS) Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC) to have fulfilled all three components of the MOL, if performed.
The AMA will also advocate for acceptance by state medical boards of programs created by specialty societies as evidence that the physician is participating in continuous lifelong learning. The AMA will also encourage state medical boards to allow physicians to choose which programs they participate in to fulfill their MOL criteria.
Lastly, the AMA agreed to oppose any MOL initiative that creates barriers to practice, is administratively unfeasible, is inflexible with regard to how physicians practice (clinically or not), does not protect physician privacy, or is used to promote policy initiatives about physician competence.
An Update on Maintenance of Licensure
The AMA is also set to amend Policy D-275.957. The AMA has agreed to continue to monitor the evolution of Maintenance of Licensure (MOL), continue its active engagement in discussions regarding MOL implementation, and report back to the House of Delegates on the issue. The AMA will also continue to review published literature and emerging data as part of the Council on Medical Education’s efforts to review MOL issues and work with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to study whether principles of MOL are important factors in a physician’s decision to retire or if they have a direct impact on the U.S. physician workforce.
The AMA will also encourage the FSMB to continue working with individual state medical boards to accept physician participation in the American Board of Medical Specialties MOC and the AOA-BOS OCC as meeting the requirements for MOL and also to develop alternatives for physicians who are not certified or recertified, and advocate that MOC or OCC not be the only pathway to MOL for physicians.
The AMA will also continue to encourage rigorous evaluation of the impact on physicians of any future proposed changes to MOL processes, including cost, staffing, and time.
Maintaining Medical Specialty Board Certification Standard
Policy H-275.926 will be amended to signify AMA’s opposition of discrimination against physicians based solely on lack of ABMS or equivalent AOA-BOS board certification. The AMA also opposed discrimination that may occur against physicians involved in the board certification process, including those who are in a clinical practice period for the specified minimum period of time that must be completed prior to taking the board certifying examination.
The AMA is also encouraging member boards of the ABMS to adopt measures aimed at mitigating the financial burden on residents related to specialty board fees and fee procedures, including ideas like shorter preregistration periods, lower fees, and easier payment terms.
Rescinded Policies
The AMA will rescind a list of policies, including: H-275.923, Maintenance of Certification/Maintenance of Licensure; H-275.944, Board Certification and Discrimination; H-405.974, Specialty Recertification Examinations; and D-275.971, American Board of Medical Specialties – Standardization of Maintenance of Certification Requirements. Most of these rescinded policies contained ideas mentioned above that were added to other policies and standards.