Have you gotten all you can squeeze out of your continuing medical education (CME) credits and your Maintenance of Certification (MOC) points?

It’s important to make every internal medicine CME credit and MOC point you’ve earned count. Did you know that you can claim MOC points for completing the certification exam — and that some medical licensure boards accept MOC in lieu of CME for relicensure? If not, read on. We’ll tell you how you can claim MOC and CME points in all kinds of unexpected ways.

“Extra” MOC Points

Claim credit for your certification exam. The ABIM awards 20 MOC points for your first attempt at each certification exam.

Earn points for your fellowship. You can receive 20 MOC points and a one-year fee credit for completion of each eligible fellowship year. It’s important to note that if you completed your fellowship in 2014, the fee credit and points won’t be applied until 2015. Application of the credit is contingent upon ABIM’s receipt of your evaluation from your program director, which is sent automatically to ABIM via their FasTrack system.

MOC Points as CME

Pick up CME credits for your board certification. You can claim 60 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for your American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) board certification. All that is required is a copy of your board certificate or your specialty board notification letter and the completion of a direct credit application. That application can be found at www.ama-assn.org/go/directcredit.

Find out if you’re exempt from reporting CME in your state. If you hold a medical license in one of the states listed below and are participating in MOC, you may be exempt from reporting CME when you renew your medical license.

Contact your state medical board for more details:

“Extra” MOC Points for Dual-Boarded Physicians

If you hold a specialty certificate from the ABIM, there are even more ways to earn extra MOC points.


Grab the equivalent of 20+ ABIM MOC points.
If you’re dual-boarded by one or more of the ABMS member boards, your ABIM self-evaluation, patient safety, and patient survey requirements will be waived.

Earn reciprocal credits. The ABIM and the ABMS have a reciprocal credit program for dual-boarded diplomates. Not all ABMS boards are participating, and credit does vary depending on the ABMS board, but using the reciprocal credit program can still save you a great deal of time. More information can be found at the ABIM website, under “Credit from Other ABMS Boards.”

Credits in NEJM Knowledge+ and NEJM

NEJM Knowledge+ Internal Medicine Board Review offers 250 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM and 80 ABIM self-assessment MOC points. If you earn all 80 MOC points in the product (which you can do in one contained place, the MOC Module), you’ll also meet your new patient safety requirement. What’s more, if you provide your ABIM number, we’ll automatically transfer the data to ABIM, and you won’t have to do any of the paperwork.

NEJM Interactive Medical Cases offer 2 ABIM MOC points for each case you complete and up to 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for participating. These interactive cases present an evolving patient history and a series of questions and exercises designed to test your diagnostic and therapeutic skills.

How Much Internal Medicine CME Is Waiting for You?

Don’t let those extra internal medicine CME credits and ABIM MOC points sit on the table. The ABIM board exam, fellowships, dual-board benefits, and MOC used as CME are all viable ways to pick up bonus points for your licensure or Maintenance of Certification.

It may take a few minutes to follow the links and claim the credits, but it will be worth the time when you sit back and realize you’re done.

Have any tips or tricks to share about your internal medicine CME or MOC experience?