What We Do
Rhode Island Physicians for Quality Care shares the latest news and updates:
RIPQC – We Are Following the National MOC Movement
Legal Opposition
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has filed suit April 23, 2013 in federal court against the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) for restraining trade and causing a reduction in access by patients to their physicians. The ABMS has entered into agreements with 24 other corporations to impose enormous “recertification” burdens on physicians, which are not justified by any significant improvements in patient care.
ABMS has a proprietary, trademarked program of recertification, called the “ABMS Maintenance of Certification®” or “ABMS MOC®”, which brings in many tens of millions of dollars in revenue to ABMS and the 24 allied corporations. Though ostensibly non-profit, these corporations then pay prodigious salaries to their executives, often in excess of $700,000 per year. But their recertification demands take physicians away from their patients, and result in hospitals denying patients access to their physicians.
Your tax-deductible contribution to the American Health Legal Foundation will them fight this important case.
CLICK HERE to contribute to the cause!
We Want RIMS to Create a Formal Resolution against MOC As Other States Have Done
The state medical societies that are considering or have passed resolutions officially opposing MOL or MOC include:
- Massachusetts
- Virginia
- Washington
- Georgia
- California
- Florida
- West Virginia
- Iowa
- Michigan
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Ohio
- New Jersey (MOC)
- Wisconsin
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Missouri MOC & MOL, January 2015
- Indiana September 2015
In 2011, the AMA House of Delegates considered the MOL and recertification issues and deferred them to a committee for further consideration.
We are contacting medical staff offices at area hospitals to include alternate board certifying agencies to their bylaws as other hospitals nationwide have started to do. We could list the current hospitals.
- Maintenance of Certification – Important and to Whom?
- MOC: Doctors Strike Back
- Newsweek: A Certified Medical Controversy
- Newsweek: Boarded to Death — Why Maintenance of Certification is Bad for Doctors and Patients
- Newsweek: Has the American Board of Internal Medicine Lost its Way?
- The Fight Against MOC: The Spark That Unites Physicians
- The Ugly Civil War in American Medicine
- To the Barricades! The Doctors’ Revolt Against ABIM is Succeeding!
We want to make sure that RI does not participate in the IMLC. There is an Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Bill that defines a physician as one who is board certified by the ABMS and participates in the MOC if not holding a life time certificate. This definition is dangerous for doctors because we have all spent 12 plus years in school and more years working, gaining invaluable experience. If we as physicians become defined by annual dues and by escalating unproven requirements of the subsidiaries of the ABMS, then we are doomed to participate in their extortion until we quit. More information on the bill is below:
One by one, state legislatures across the country are introducing bills to create an “Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.” If enacted, a vast majority of physicians seeking a license through the compact WOULD BE REQUIRED to participate in MOC. In fact, the compact defines “physician” as one who holds specialty certification recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties or the American Osteopathic Association’s Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists. NO STATE currently defines a physician in this manner. The compact would be a giant leap towards entrenching MOC as mandatory for ALL physicians and puts in place a new bureaucracy that will most certainly only continue to increase its power over the ability of physicians to practice and the rights of patients to see the physician of their choice.
The Maryland Medical Board testified in opposition to the Compact based in part on its additional layer of bureaucracy, its increase in fees, and its circumvention of state licensing requirements. The Maryland State Medical Society expressed their concern about how the Compact handled disciplinary issues.
“Missouri’s medical board voiced similar concerns- The Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts- have voiced similar concerns. The State Medical Board of Ohio also decided “not to pursue legislation to implement the compact” and published a memo outlining their reasons.”