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Monday, June 12, 2017

After 40 plus years ABIM does audit to see if I have a medical license

What is that all about?

 I received a letter from the ABIM informing me that " during a recent audit, ABIM was unable to confirm that you have a valid license to practice medicine." I was requested to send a copy of my license within 30 days and " if ABIM is unable to confirm that you hold a valid license to practice medicine,ABIM will be obliged to suspend your Board Certification and report your certification status as "Not certified".

I replied the same day by Email and send a hard copy of my license by letter . A few days later I received a second letter identical to the first and again I replied by mail with a copy of my license.I have had no reply.

I wondered about their audit procedure. I was able to verify my license in less than 2 minutes by going the website of the state of the medical board in the state in which I have had an uninterrupted license  at the same address for over 35 years.If their audit process is as inadequate as it appears to be they will waste more than a little time and effort to confirm licenses and waste time and efforts of diplomats replying to the requests.

Why , after forty years, does ABIM consider it necessary to determine if I have a license?

Is this somehow related to their widely criticized  maintenance of certification (MOC) program and the efforts of some organizations to link MOC with state medical license requirements?

Have others received similar letters? Any thoughts about what this is all about?

addendum: It is now more than 2 months and ABIM has still not replied to my email which they had promised in "2-3 weeks" saying they were very busy. 8/19/17

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