Requirements for Maintaining MD License
To practice medicine in the United States, physicians need professional licenses, which are issued by state medical boards. For the medical board to consider a physician for licensure, the physician must meet specific qualifications, including graduating from medical school, completing postgraduate training (residency), and passing a national medical licensing exam. After gaining a license, physicians must renew it periodically, demonstrating ongoing ethical and clinical standards and participation in medical education.1 Requirements for maintaining an MD license vary by state, as each state has its own renewal cycle and continuing education requirements. 3 It is essential for physicians to understand the licensure requirements for each state they are practicing in. This article will discuss three different examples of licensure renewal criteria.
There are two categories of continuing medical education (CME) credits. Category 1 activities are provided by accredited organizations while Category 2 activities are not certified but are still considered valuable by some state medical boards. States have different requirements for Category 1 and Category 2 credits for maintaining an MD license.
In Delaware, license renewal requires that physicians complete continuous medical education from Category 1 sources only. Furthermore, physicians must complete this continuous education biennially. There is a training subspeciality for controlled substance prescribing practices, chronic pain treatment, and other related topics. Like Delaware, the following states: District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Missouri, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Nevada, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, United States Virgin Islands, Wisconsin, Wyoming, focus on physicians completing continuing medical education (CME) in Category 1 and addiction training. States like Illinois and Oregon have a sexual harassment training and/or mental health training requirement in addition to Category 1 CME and controlled substance training. Kentucky’s training requirements for maintaining an MD license focus on domestic violence and HIV/AIDS in addition to Category 1 CME and addiction training.3
In New Jersey, physicians need to complete 100 hours of continuing medical education every 2 years. 40 hours must be Category 1, and the remaining 60 hours can be Category 2. Additionally, 6 hours must cover cultural competence. Category 1 credits must include End-of-Life Care and topics related to prescription opioid drugs, responsible prescribing practices, pain management alternatives, and opioid abuse risks. New York City doctors must complete 2 hours of training on identifying and reporting child abuse and maltreatment. Additionally, they must undertake coursework or training on infection control and barrier precautions once every four years. For doctors who prescribe controlled substances, three (3) hours of course work or training in pain management, palliative care, and addiction is required. To maintain one’s medical license in Pennsylvania and Texas, child abuse continuous education training is required in addition to meeting requirements for Category 1 CME and addiction training. 3
Physicians in Puerto Rico need to complete 60 hours of continuing medical education every 3 years. Of these, 40 hours must fall under Category 1, and at least 50% must be in areas related to the physician’s specialty with minimum of 10 hours on Disease Prevention and health promotion. For physicians providing hospital emergency room services, 20 hours of CME must be in Emergency Medicine, including life support courses, emergency management, and the study of emergency medicine.
Additionally, licensees must complete six credit hours specifically addressing Bioethics and Professionalism. Similarly, West Virginia physicians must complete a certain number of CME hours within their specialty in addition to general Category 1 CME. Finally, Washington requires its physicians to complete 200 hours of general continuous education courses every four years, and they need to take a six-hour course on suicide assessment, treatment, and management in addition to a one-hour CE course on best practices in opioid prescribing or the opioid prescribing rules.3
References
- Board by Board Continuous Education Overview – https://www.fsmb.org/siteassets/advocacy/key-issues/continuing-medical-education-by-state.pdf
- https://info.boardvitals.com/knowledge/cme-categories