ABIM Eliminates ‘Double Jeopardy’ MOC Requirement

In response to input provided by the ACC and other cardiology specialty societies (SCAI, HRS and HFSA) around the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM’s) new requirements for Maintenance of Certification (MOC), the ABIM today announced it is eliminating the requirement to maintain underlying certification in a foundational discipline in order to remain certified in a subspecialty. The ABIM Council unanimously passed the proposal to eliminate this “double jeopardy” provision, noting it was clearly an important topic to the internal medicine community. According to the ABIM, it will begin implementing the new requirement in the coming months, with the change to be fully effective as of Jan. 1, 2016. The change does not affect the requirement for initial certification. This announcement reflects the engagement and collaboration of ACC leaders, as well as the broader internal medicine community, on behalf of their members over the past year and a half. Eliminating the double jeopardy faced by interventional, electrophysiology, adult congenital heart disease and advanced heart failure colleagues who initially had to pass both the general cardiology and sub-subspecialty boards is among the several changes strongly recommended by the College and the broader internal medicine community. Read more on the change and ACC’s ongoing efforts around MOC.