ABPN Maintenance of Certification (Now Continuing Certification): The Complete Overview

Q: Can I do extra CME this block and use it next block?

No. Credit cannot be carried forward .

If you search for “ABPN MOC,” you will land on pages that now say “Continuing Certification” or “CC.” Same program, new name. This page explains what the ABPN Continuing Certification Program is, who has to do it, what it costs, how the 3-year blocks and 10-year cycle fit together, what happens if you fall behind, and how your status shows up to credentialers. For the detailed CME and Self-Assessment numbers, see /abpn-cme-requirements.

Everything below was checked against abpn.org and abms.org on 2026-08-21. ABPN states that all CC policies “are subject to change” and that each diplomate is responsible for staying current [3].

From recertification to MOC to Continuing Certification

ABPN’s own history of the program, in its June 2025 CC Program booklet [3]:

Period	What applied
Before October 1, 1994	Psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, neurology, and child neurology certificates were lifetime (“Non-Time Limited”).
October 1, 1994 – December 31, 2011	Time-limited certificates expiring December 31, ten years after issue. Child and adolescent psychiatry time-limited certificates began in 1995. All other subspecialty certificates were always time-limited.
2007	Under an ABMS mandate, recertification became the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program: admission to the recertification exam now required prerequisite MOC activities.
January 1, 2012	ABPN “transitioned to Continuing Certification.” Certificates issued from 2012 onward have no end date; they stay valid as long as the diplomate meets CC requirements on a three-year cycle. The exam cycle stayed at ten years.
July 2019	Diplomates in pain medicine or sleep medicine (administered by other boards) may follow that board’s rules on maintaining their primary certification.
2022	Article-Based Continuing Certification (ABCC) became available as an alternative to the 10-year exam [3].
2025	ABCC simplified to 20 article exams per certification per 3-year block; a professionalism-tagged article is required each block [5][6].

At the ABMS level, the Board of Directors approved new Standards for Continuing Certification on October 29, 2021, effective January 1, 2024, for all member boards. They grew out of the 2019 “Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future” Commission and replace the older MOC standards. Among other things, member boards must check at least every five years whether a diplomate is meeting requirements, must offer assessments with a “formative emphasis,” and must verify unrestricted licensure annually [12].

Practical takeaway: ABPN still uses “MOC” in some URLs and exam names (e.g., “Maintenance of Certification in Psychiatry” exam pages), but the official program name is Continuing Certification [1][3].

Who must participate

Certificate type	Must participate?	Notes
Time-limited (certified or recertified 2012 or later)	Yes	Automatically enrolled in CC on passing an exam or the ABCC pathway [3][4].
Time-limited issued 1994–2011	Yes, to remain certified	Expired December 31, ten years after issue unless recertified; recertifying enrolls you in CC [3].
Non-Time Limited / lifetime (before October 1, 1994)	No	Optional participation; see below [7].

ABPN’s wording: “While Board certification is voluntary, participation in the CC Program is required to maintain certification for diplomates with time-limited certificates” [4]. Every diplomate, including lifetime holders, must keep “an active, full, and unrestricted” US or Canadian medical license; without one on file the status becomes “Not Certified” [3].

Lifetime (Non-Time Limited) certificate holders

Participation is not required, but ABPN notes hospitals, practice groups, and payers “may require evidence of continuous certification efforts” [7]. If you do nothing, you are reported to ABMS and on verifyCERT as “Certified – Not meeting CC requirements and not required to do so” [3] (the lifetime-holders web page phrases it as “Certified – Not Required to Meet CC Requirements” [7]).

If you opt in through the Physician Portal (choosing the exam or ABCC pathway), you are immediately listed as “Meeting CC Requirements,” then have three years to complete a full block of activities, pay the annual fee, and either pass the CC exam or complete the article exams [3][7]. A lifetime holder who opts in and then fails the exam or ABCC still keeps the lifetime certificate [3][7].

Note: the June 2025 booklet and the lifetime-holders web page say 20 article exams for this first block; the April 2026 FAQ still says 30 [3][4][7]. The 20 figure matches the 2025 ABCC rule; treat 30 as a stale line in the FAQ and confirm in your Portal.

The four components

ABPN structures CC around the four ABMS-mandated parts [3][4]:

Component	What ABPN requires	Detail page
1. Professionalism and professional standing	Active, full, unrestricted medical license; all licenses held must be unrestricted; keep licenses updated in the Portal.	—
2. Lifelong learning and self-assessment	90 Category 1 CME credits per 3-year block (SA CME counts toward the 90), including 16 Self-Assessment CME credits from ABPN-approved activities; plus a one-time Patient Safety activity for those whose first block began in 2017 or later.	/abpn-cme-requirements, /abpn-self-assessment-cme, /abpn-patient-safety-activity
3. Assessment of knowledge, judgment, and skills	Pass a CC exam for each certification every 10 years, or complete 20 ABCC article exams per certification per 3-year block.	/abpn-article-pathway-abcc
4. Performance in Practice (PIP)	One PIP activity (a Clinical chart-review module or a Feedback module) per 3-year block, if clinically active.	/abpn-pip-activity

Plus: pay the annual fee and attest to completed activities in the Physician Portal [3][4].

Blocks and cycles: how the calendar works

3-year block. CME, SA CME, PIP, and ABCC article exams are assigned and evaluated in 3-year blocks. Blocks begin “the first year after a diplomate’s initial certification award date” and the same applies after recertification [5]. Deadlines are posted in your Physician Portal; article exams are due December 31 of the last year of the block [5].
10-year assessment cycle. The exam cycle remains 10 years from your last certification or recertification award date. On the exam pathway you can sit the CC exam in year 9 or 10 and must pass by the end of year 10 [5]. On ABCC, three successful consecutive blocks (years 1–9) mean no article exams in year 10, which is used for “evaluation and finalization” [5].
No banking. Credit “must be earned within the designated time frame of your current three-year CC cycle”; excess or earlier credit cannot be carried forward [3][4].
Pathway switching. You can switch between ABCC and the exam per certificate during the first six years of the 10-year cycle; after December 31 of year 6 you cannot enter ABCC. If you switch from ABCC to exam, you cannot switch back until you have passed the exam [5].

A full 10-year cycle at a glance (exam pathway vs ABCC)

Assume certification awarded in 2026. Year 1 of the cycle is 2027.

Cycle year	Calendar year	Block	Activities due by December 31	Exam pathway	ABCC pathway
1	2027	Block 1	Pay annual fee; attest	—	Start article exams
2	2028	Block 1	Pay annual fee; attest	—	Continue
3	2029	Block 1 ends	90 CME / 16 SA / 1 PIP / Patient Safety (if applicable) complete; fee; attest	—	20 article exams complete
4	2030	Block 2	Fee; attest	—	Start next 20 (catch-up window for Block 1 opens)
5	2031	Block 2	Fee; attest	—	Continue
6	2032	Block 2 ends	Block 2 activities complete; fee; attest	Last chance to switch to ABCC	20 exams complete; any Block 1 shortfall must be cleared or you move to the exam pathway
7	2033	Block 3	Fee; attest	—	Start next 20
8	2034	Block 3	Fee; attest	—	Continue
9	2035	Block 3 ends	Block 3 activities complete; fee; attest	Exam available	20 exams complete
10	2036	Block 4 begins	Fee; attest; start Block 4 activities	Must pass exam by Dec 31	No article exams; ABPN evaluates and finalizes

Sources: block and deadline rules [3][5]; exam-year rules and ABCC catch-up rule [5]. Exact block dates for your own certificates are only authoritative in your Portal [5].

Physician Portal (formerly “Physician Folios”)

Older ABPN materials and many third-party pages call the diplomate account “Physician Folios”; ABPN now calls it the ABPN Physician Portal and says every certified physician has one [9]. In it you can update contact details and licenses, apply and pay for exams, access ABCC article exams, “view and attest to your CC requirements,” pay the annual fee, and see scores [9].

Attestation. Diplomates “must attest to completed CC activities on an annual basis” in the “Activity Requirements” section; you do not submit certificates unless audited, and you never send patient data to ABPN [4].
Clinical activity status. You must self-report every 24 months whether you are Clinically Active, Clinically Active – Not Enough for a PIP, or Clinically Inactive; only the first group must complete PIP [3].
Pathway election. At the start of each 3-year block you attest to the exam or ABCC pathway for each certificate [5].
Keep records. ABPN may request documentation “from the past 3 years” in an audit, so keep your own file [3].

Annual fee

ABPN replaced the old lump-sum recertification application fee with an annual fee covering all active certifications [4]. From the current fee schedule (ABPN says fees are unchanged for 2026) [10]:

Certificates held	Annual CC fee	Due
One	$175	December 31, non-refundable
Two	$240	December 31, non-refundable
Three or more	$310	December 31, non-refundable

The fee covers both assessment pathways, status reporting, the Portal and CC tracker, and ongoing credentialing and verification [4]. Credit-card payments carry a convenience fee; debit-card payments do not [10]. Diplomates who receive a fellowship block waiver must still pay the fee [3][4]. Re-entering after a lapse requires a CC exam/ABCC fee of $1,750 (one certificate), $2,400 (two), or $3,100 (three or more), plus a $100 late-application fee where applicable [10].

What happens if you do not meet the requirements

ABPN’s status ladder, quoted from the booklet and FAQ [3][4]:

Situation	Reported status
All requirements met, fee paid, license on file	Certified – Meeting CC Requirements
By the end of a 3-year block you have not logged in, paid the fee, attested to activities, and kept a valid license on file	Certified – Not Meeting CC Requirements
Two blocks (6 years) of requirements not completed	Not Certified
Failed an audit	Certified – Not Meeting CC Requirements; you have the rest of the next block to supply documentation; if still unmet at the end of that block (6 years), Not Certified
No active, full, unrestricted license on file	Not Certified

Recovering from “Not Meeting” is straightforward: complete the missing block activities plus the current block’s, and pay all outstanding fees [4]. Recovering from “Not Certified” is heavier: complete one block of activities (90 CME including 16 SA, and 1 PIP from the previous three years), apply and pay for recertification, and pass the CC exam or complete ABCC for each certificate you want back [3]. Activities and partial fees completed before a lapse “expire along with the certificate(s)” [3][4]. There is “no time limit for regaining certification through CC” [3]. If a primary certificate lapses, dependent subspecialty certificates lapse too, except child and adolescent psychiatry, which does not require maintaining the primary [3].

How your status is displayed

Certification and CC status “are public information,” reported on ABPN verifyCERT and annually to ABMS [3]. verifyCERT lets anyone look up physicians by name, specialty, or location [11]; ABMS publishes the same data through its Certification Matters “Is My Doctor Certified?” lookup [13]. The labels credentialers will see are the ones in the table above.

Audits

ABPN randomly audits about 5% of CC-exam applications and 5% of diplomates in the CC Program each year, notifying diplomates by email after a 3-year block ends. You then have 90 days to submit documentation for activities you attested to that ABPN cannot verify. Sponsor-reported activities count as verified; self-recorded entries do not. Anyone re-entering after an expired or invalidated certificate is audited automatically [8][3].

Multiple certificates: do requirements stack?

Mostly no. “Diplomates complete one set of requirements (CME, SA, PIP) each 3-year block, regardless of number of certifications held,” and activities “completed for one specialty/subspecialty will satisfy the requirement for another” [3][4]. What does scale with certificate count:

Assessment. You must pass a CC exam (or 20 article exams) for each certification. Combined CC exams cover up to three ABPN-administered certificates in one sitting (100 questions per area, one overall pass/fail) [3][4]. ABCC counts 20 articles per certificate per block [5].
Annual fee. Tiered by number of certificates ($175/$240/$310) [10].
Primary maintenance. Every ABPN subspecialty except child and adolescent psychiatry requires you to keep the primary certificate active [3].

Also useful: a 3-year block of CME/SA/PIP is waived for the block in which you pass a subspecialty exam after an ACGME fellowship (fee and patient-safety attestation still apply), and SA/PIP done for another ABMS board can be claimed for ABPN [3][4].

Recent and upcoming changes to watch

ABCC reduced to a flat 20 article exams per certificate per block (January 30, 2025), with a mandatory professionalism-tagged article each block [5][6].
ABPN’s ABCC FAQ was reissued March 2026 and the CC FAQ April 2026; the CC booklet is dated June 2025 [3][4][5].
Fees unchanged for 2026 [10].
ABMS 2024 standards require member boards to offer formative assessments and check status at least every five years; ABPN’s 3-year blocks already satisfy this [12].

Checklist by year

Every year (by December 31)

Pay the annual fee in the Portal [10].
Attest to activities completed so far [4].
Confirm all licenses are current and unrestricted in the Portal [3].
ABCC: pass roughly 7 article exams to stay on pace for 20 per block [5].

Every 24 months

Update your Clinical Activity Status [3].

By the end of each 3-year block

90 Category 1 CME credits, including 16 ABPN-approved SA CME credits [3].
One PIP activity (both assessment steps done within 24 months) [3].
ABCC: 20 article exams per certificate, including one professionalism-tagged article [5].
Re-attest to your pathway choice for the next block [5].

Once

Patient Safety activity, if your first block began in 2017 or later [3].

Year 6

Last chance to enter or switch to ABCC [5].

Years 9–10

Exam pathway: apply for and pass the CC exam by the end of year 10 [5].

Common questions

Is ABPN MOC the same thing as Continuing Certification? Yes. ABPN moved from recertification to MOC in 2007 and to Continuing Certification in 2012; ABMS’s current standards use “Continuing Certification” throughout [3][12].

Do lifetime certificate holders have to do anything? Only keep an unrestricted license. Participation in CC is optional, and they never lose the certificate for failing an exam or ABCC [3][7].

When is the annual fee due and how much is it? December 31 each year; $175 for one certificate, $240 for two, $310 for three or more, non-refundable [10].

What does “Certified – Not Meeting CC Requirements” mean for credentialing? You are still certified, but the public record shows you have not completed the block’s fee, attestation, or activities. It becomes “Not Certified” if two blocks go unmet [3][4].

I hold psychiatry and child psychiatry. Do I need 180 CME credits? No. One set of CME/SA/PIP per block covers all certificates. You do need separate assessments (exam or 20 articles) for each, and the two-certificate fee [3][4][5].

Can I do extra CME this block and use it next block? No. Credit cannot be carried forward [3][4].

Do I have to send certificates to ABPN? Not unless audited (about 5% per year). Keep your own documentation for at least three years [3][8].

What if I miss the exam in year 10? The certificate lapses and you are reported “Not Certified.” You can re-enter at any time by completing one block of activities, paying the re-entry fee, and passing the exam or ABCC [3][10].

References

ABPN. “Maintain Certification.” https://abpn.org/maintain-certification/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Continuing Certification.” https://abpn.org/continuing-certification-3/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Continuing Certification (CC) Program” booklet, June 2025. https://abpn.org/wp-content/uploads/CC-Booklet.pdf — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Frequently Asked Questions about the CC Program,” April 2026. https://abpn.org/wp-content/uploads/CC-Program-FAQ_Combined.pdf — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “2025 Article-Based Continuing Certification (ABCC) Pathway Frequently Asked Questions,” March 2026. https://abpn.org/wp-content/uploads/ABCC-FAQs.pdf — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Article-Based Continuing Certification Pathway (ABCC).” https://abpn.org/continuing-certification/article-based-continuing-certification-pathway-abcc/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Non-Time Limited Certificate Holders.” https://abpn.org/maintain-certification/cc-program/lifetime-certificate-holders/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “ABPN Diplomate Audits.” https://abpn.org/maintain-certification/abpn-diplomate-audits/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Physician Portal.” https://abpn.org/maintain-certification/physician-portal/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “ABPN Fee Schedule.” https://abpn.org/quick-links/abpn-fee-schedule/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
ABPN. “Check Physician Status (verifyCERT).” https://abpn.org/check-physician-status/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
American Board of Medical Specialties. “Standards for Continuing Certification” (approved October 29, 2021; effective January 1, 2024). https://www.abms.org/board-certification/board-certification-standards/standards-for-continuing-certification/ — accessed 2026-08-21.
American Board of Medical Specialties. “Verify Certification / Certification Matters.” https://www.abms.org/board-certification/verify-certification/ — accessed 2026-08-21.