On Wednesday, February 13, the Vision Commission submitted its final report to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). In short, the Academy is disappointed and concerned that the report did not go far enough in the specificity of their recommendations to make an immediate and transformative impact to Maintenance of Certification® (MOC®).
The Vision Commission’s report did clearly confirm that the MOC structure and process is broken and ineffective. The ball is now in ABMS’s court to quickly address and fix this problem. Until a clear transition plan and new standards are defined by ABMS and adopted by ABPMR, AAPM&R continues to advocate consistent with our position statement, testimony, and submitted comments that:
- Board certification should not be a criterion for medical licensing nor a sole criterion for credentialing and/or privileging.
- The high stakes and expensive Part III exam should be immediately discontinued.
- Part IV/PIP should immediately be suspended until ABMS confirms and establishes standards and guidelines to assure experiences that are meaningful, demonstrate value, and not overly burdensome.
- We support the rapid implementation of a longitudinal formative assessment in lieu of Parts II, III, IV; however, implementation of the revised structure must:
- be meaningful and demonstrate value for physiatrists.
- reduce the financial burden on all physiatrists.
- provide a path for those who are currently MOC Part III-eligible to transition so they are not penalized.
Our advocacy efforts on behalf of all physiatrist members will continue with ABMS and ABPMR.