Empower Mississippi physicians to lobby their specialty boards to change MOC requirements

Many physician frustrations are caused by onerous MOC requirements imposed by national specialty boards. Some boards have responded to pressure from their members and are making changes to their MOC requirements. Flip to the back of this Playbook to get an update as of June 2017 on how national boards are changing. If your board is not making changes, you need to let board members know your concerns. The sample letter that follows is intended to help you lobby your state specialty societies (if yours is active) and your national specialty society to make this a priority issue. Your national specialty society has great influence over who is representing your specialty on the national boards. Similar to our congressional leaders, they need to hear from their constituents and respond accordingly.

Letter to State Specialty Society/National Medical Society:

A collective voice carries more weight. You can use the sample letter below to engage your state or national specialty society to make MOC a priority issue. By rallying support from colleagues practicing in your specialty, you can be more effective in influencing the physicians representing you on your national boards.

DRAFT

 
Month, Day, Year
Jane Doe, MD, President
State/National Specialty Society
Address
City, MS ZIP
 
Dear Dr.____________,

Physicians across the country are fed up with the burdensome MOC processes imposed by various national specialty boards and are banding together to effectuate change. I am a member of the [State/National specialty society] and I need your help to advocate to the [National Specialty Board] to change their onerous requirements for MOC.

[National Specialty Board]’s process is not an adequate model of lifelong learning nor does it enhance quality of care. Rather, it has become a time-consuming, expensive and often grueling experience that is not benefiting my patients in any way. I turn to you to advocate on my behalf and explore every avenue to solve this problem. Please convey the following points to [National Specialty Board] on behalf of the members of [medical society]:

We are firmly committed to lifelong learning.

We value board certification.

Any requirements to maintain board certification should be quick, inexpensive, relevant to my actual practice, and not high-stakes.

We need access to a wider offering of CME that counts toward MOC.

Recertification exams are incredibly expensive and time-consuming. Develop new ways to test that don’t require expensive review courses and travel to testing centers.

The physician board members of the [National specialty board] are not representing our interests and need to know that we demand change. Can I count on you to petition our representatives on the American Board of _____ so that we can once again be proud of our board certification?

Sincerely,

______________, MD/DO