Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
UPDATED Petition to Support Lifelong Learning and Oppose Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) in Iowa
Final supporters
The Maintenance of Certification (MOC) was mandated by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in the year 2000 for their 24 specialty boards, including the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). The rationale for creating the MOC was to address a perceived need by the public for greater accountability from physicians in terms of safe practice for protection of the public, continuous quality improvement, and competence.
If you were board-certified after 1994, you are required to participate in the MOC program. If you have a time-unlimited certificate in psychiatry, you are not required to participate although you will be publicly identified as “certification inactive” if you don’t. The MOC is for physicians who have time-limited certificates in psychiatry, which means during each 10 year cycle during their careers, they are responsible for demonstrating they are keeping up to date with their medical knowledge and practice.
There are several MOC components that diplomates are required to complete over the 10-year cycle. Many physicians believe they take time away from patient care and there is no high level research evidence showing that they improve patient outcomes, ensure safety, or enhance the physician-patient relationship. There is some evidence that they lead to non-profit boards making a great deal of money which tends to be associated with very large salaries of top executives. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit in Federal court in April 2013 against the ABMS regarding antitrust concerns about MOC.
The Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) is another regulatory layer on top of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) promulgated by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) for the purpose of providing evidence that physicians are participating in a program of continuous professional development. According to the FSMB, if you’re compliant with MOC, you would be in substantial compliance with MOL.
It’s being proposed that MOL be a condition of medical licensure. The FSMB is a non-profit organization representing the nation’s 70 state medical boards with whom it is working to develop a MOL system for the United States. Implementation pilot projects are reportedly underway in several states including Iowa to study and implement MOL.
A resolution to support lifelong learning but oppose MOL was adopted in Iowa in April 2013 by the Iowa Medical Society House of Delegates. The resolution was sponsored by Dr. James Amos, MD and co-sponsored by the Iowa Psychiatric Society. MOL was defeated on the grounds that it would be duplicative as it really is not distinguishable from MOC, especially since the FSMB essentially makes MOC a sufficient condition for satisfying requirements for MOL. Several similar resolutions have been adopted in many states including New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, and Oklahoma.
But the Iowa Board of Medicine (IBM) is still pursuing MOL implementation pilot projects. The next step for the IBM is to distribute an online survey to Iowa licensees to investigate a number of items, including board certification status, how licensees manage their continuing education, and hopefully, a poll query as to whether or not licensees favor the imposition of MOL.
This petition is for the purpose of supporting lifelong learning but opposing the implementation of MOL in Iowa. The IMS has already adopted a resolution to oppose MOL and the IBM knows that. Iowans and anyone else who supports this petition needs to send a strong, clear message to the IBM and the FSMB that we don’t want MOL in Iowa.
Thank you for your support in signing this petition.
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Updates
November 19, 2013
Reaching this milestone proves that physicians across Iowa are tired of the burden imposed by Maintenance of Licensure requirements. Send this link to three colleagues right now and tell them why this fight matters for our practice. Call your local representative today and demand they prioritize patient care over administrative fees.
31 Comments
The ABMS should demonstrate conclusively that the onerous and expensive MOC process that they have mandated, actually does what it purports to do. Evidence based assessment is no less important than evidence-based medicine and to simply assert that the process they have adopted is valid, does not make it so.
Congratulations to Iowa for joining the growing number of states to oppose MOL. MOC is a scam on practicing physicians who must waste money and take time away from patients to prepare for and take a test that has no proven value. Every patient is a test on our ability to diagnose and treat them, and our smart phones have the latest information at our fingertips. We do not need MOC.
The movement to link MOC to MOL is yet another scam to further subjugate physicians while enriching a few. Having done MOC for over 20 years, I came to the realization that MOC had done nothing but waste my time and money, and certainly did not improve my medical practice. I believe in life long learning, no life long testing.
MOC makes as little sense as, let's say, "MOD". Should any school from which you have once graduated now be able to require participation in a "Maintenance of Degree" program to keep your degree?
its an absolutely abusive now from ABMS for this MOC. They want money money money money. I enrolled MOC for ABIM 2 years ago, as they were keep sending to sign up even though its expiring on 2016. Now after i finished my exam, they want me to enroll in new programm and they want more money. They are absoultely abusive, dishonest, griddy and they really do not care about quality of care.
MOL in any state is a mistake. Dr. Hank Chaudhry, the president of the FSMB, is mentally bankrupt and does not consider patients in his decision. Please, please don't let Iowa become a state he can point to with pride!!
Whoever decided that requiring more and more testing would improve quality of care? Is there some hidden research that proves this?
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Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
UPDATED Petition to Support Lifelong Learning and Oppose Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) in Iowa
Final supporters
The Maintenance of Certification (MOC) was mandated by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in the year 2000 for their 24 specialty boards, including the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). The rationale for creating the MOC was to address a perceived need by the public for greater accountability from physicians in terms of safe practice for protection of the public, continuous quality improvement, and competence.
If you were board-certified after 1994, you are required to participate in the MOC program. If you have a time-unlimited certificate in psychiatry, you are not required to participate although you will be publicly identified as “certification inactive” if you don’t. The MOC is for physicians who have time-limited certificates in psychiatry, which means during each 10 year cycle during their careers, they are responsible for demonstrating they are keeping up to date with their medical knowledge and practice.
There are several MOC components that diplomates are required to complete over the 10-year cycle. Many physicians believe they take time away from patient care and there is no high level research evidence showing that they improve patient outcomes, ensure safety, or enhance the physician-patient relationship. There is some evidence that they lead to non-profit boards making a great deal of money which tends to be associated with very large salaries of top executives. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit in Federal court in April 2013 against the ABMS regarding antitrust concerns about MOC.
The Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) is another regulatory layer on top of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) promulgated by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) for the purpose of providing evidence that physicians are participating in a program of continuous professional development. According to the FSMB, if you’re compliant with MOC, you would be in substantial compliance with MOL.
It’s being proposed that MOL be a condition of medical licensure. The FSMB is a non-profit organization representing the nation’s 70 state medical boards with whom it is working to develop a MOL system for the United States. Implementation pilot projects are reportedly underway in several states including Iowa to study and implement MOL.
A resolution to support lifelong learning but oppose MOL was adopted in Iowa in April 2013 by the Iowa Medical Society House of Delegates. The resolution was sponsored by Dr. James Amos, MD and co-sponsored by the Iowa Psychiatric Society. MOL was defeated on the grounds that it would be duplicative as it really is not distinguishable from MOC, especially since the FSMB essentially makes MOC a sufficient condition for satisfying requirements for MOL. Several similar resolutions have been adopted in many states including New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, and Oklahoma.
But the Iowa Board of Medicine (IBM) is still pursuing MOL implementation pilot projects. The next step for the IBM is to distribute an online survey to Iowa licensees to investigate a number of items, including board certification status, how licensees manage their continuing education, and hopefully, a poll query as to whether or not licensees favor the imposition of MOL.
This petition is for the purpose of supporting lifelong learning but opposing the implementation of MOL in Iowa. The IMS has already adopted a resolution to oppose MOL and the IBM knows that. Iowans and anyone else who supports this petition needs to send a strong, clear message to the IBM and the FSMB that we don’t want MOL in Iowa.
Thank you for your support in signing this petition.
Updates
November 19, 2013
Reaching this milestone proves that physicians across Iowa are tired of the burden imposed by Maintenance of Licensure requirements. Send this link to three colleagues right now and tell them why this fight matters for our practice. Call your local representative today and demand they prioritize patient care over administrative fees.
31 Comments
Lifelong learning, independent research and investigation, and our professions dedicated to teaching, excellence in practice and scholarly pursuits, including many different forms of CME, should not be constrained or strangled by high revenue MOC programs of questionable relevance and scientific accuracy. Thank you, Iowa, for working to stop the MOC testing industry and virtual monopoly in your state.
The ABMS should demonstrate conclusively that the onerous and expensive MOC process that they have mandated, actually does what it purports to do. Evidence based assessment is no less important than evidence-based medicine and to simply assert that the process they have adopted is valid, does not make it so.
Congratulations to Iowa for joining the growing number of states to oppose MOL. MOC is a scam on practicing physicians who must waste money and take time away from patients to prepare for and take a test that has no proven value. Every patient is a test on our ability to diagnose and treat them, and our smart phones have the latest information at our fingertips. We do not need MOC.
The movement to link MOC to MOL is yet another scam to further subjugate physicians while enriching a few. Having done MOC for over 20 years, I came to the realization that MOC had done nothing but waste my time and money, and certainly did not improve my medical practice. I believe in life long learning, no life long testing.
MOC makes as little sense as, let's say, "MOD". Should any school from which you have once graduated now be able to require participation in a "Maintenance of Degree" program to keep your degree?
its an absolutely abusive now from ABMS for this MOC. They want money money money money. I enrolled MOC for ABIM 2 years ago, as they were keep sending to sign up even though its expiring on 2016. Now after i finished my exam, they want me to enroll in new programm and they want more money. They are absoultely abusive, dishonest, griddy and they really do not care about quality of care.
MOL in any state is a mistake. Dr. Hank Chaudhry, the president of the FSMB, is mentally bankrupt and does not consider patients in his decision. Please, please don't let Iowa become a state he can point to with pride!!
Whoever decided that requiring more and more testing would improve quality of care? Is there some hidden research that proves this?
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Lifelong learning, independent research and investigation, and our professions dedicated to teaching, excellence in practice and scholarly pursuits, including many different forms of CME, should not be constrained or strangled by high revenue MOC programs of questionable relevance and scientific accuracy. Thank you, Iowa, for working to stop the MOC testing industry and virtual monopoly in your state.