Mad Enough at MOC Process to Give Up Your Certification? This Physician Was

The Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) has written at length about physician concerns with the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process. Another specialty board has taken some heat in a blog post that has quickly spread on social media in recent days.

Michigan-based pediatrician Meg Edison, MD, explained why she voluntarily gave up her American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) MOC certification in a guest blog she wrote for the website Rebel MD.

“Up until December 17 at 3:00, I did everything you asked,” Dr. Edison wrote. “But when I was threatened with loss of certification if I didn’t give another $1,300, I finally had enough. The fact that the ABP can completely strip qualified and competent pediatricians of board certification for not paying more money is further evidence that MOC is all about the money.”

Read Dr. Edison’s entire blog post

Dr. Edison finished her blog with a link to an online petition that called for ending ABP MOC. The blog generated nearly 100 comments on Rebel MD and dozens of social media exchanges on Twitter.

PAMED continues to drive statewide and national conversations on the MOC process. A video debate between ABIM President and CEO Richard Baron, MD, and PAMED President-Elect Charles Cutler, MD, is the most viewed video on PAMED’s website over the past year.

PAMED introduced a number of MOC-related resolutions at recent American Medical Association (AMA) meetings and will talk with AMA Board Chair Dr. Stephen Permut about follow-up to those actions during PAMED’s next Board of Trustees meeting in February 2016.