Courtesy Justin Perri, American Board of Internal Medicine
Dr. Richard Baron
"We can increase the quotient of meaningful, high-value work to busy work," Dr. Baron said. "That’s another thing that we hear a lot about, and we hear that loud and clear."
In addition to fine-tuning their educational products, ABIM is inviting more community physicians to be part of their process and become members of their boards and committees. "It really matters who is in the room," Dr. Baron said. "We’re now committed to having people in community practice in all the rooms."
But ABIM has no intention of rolling back the new continuous certification process, which it views as essential to ensuring for the public, hospitals, and payers that physicians are not falling behind on their medical knowledge and skills.
Dr. Baron said the previous process allowed physicians to cram all of their work into the final 2 years of the 10-year cycle and didn’t guarantee that they were sharpening their skills along the way.
"We knew that it wasn’t functioning as a continuous program, and we also knew that we were basically issuing a certificate and saying it lasts for 10 years," Dr. Baron said. "Our board was uncomfortable with both those things."
While the new process has more requirements and tight time frames, Dr. Baron said the board has worked to make sure that MOC work can also count toward other physician requirements, including CME credit, Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System, and Bridges to Excellence. Physicians also may be able to earn rewards or recognition from some health plans, he noted.
mschneider@frontlinemedcom.com On Twitter @maryellenny