California CME Requirements for Psychiatrists

California requirements for all physicians

Renewal cycle: Biennially; the license expires at midnight on the last day of the licensee's birth month in the second year, and the 50 hours must be completed in the two years immediately preceding expiration.

• 50 hours of approved CME every 2-year renewal cycle (16 CCR §1336); all hours must be AMA PRA Category 1 / CMA-certified, AAFP prescribed credit, or another program acceptable to the Board (16 CCR §1337)
• One-time 12-hour course in pain management and the treatment of terminally ill and dying patients, due within 4 years of initial licensure or by the second renewal, whichever is first (BPC §2190.5); pathologists and radiologists are exempt, and the Board may waive it for physicians with no direct patient care or who reside outside California
• Physicians licensed on or after January 1, 2019 must include the risks of addiction associated with Schedule II drugs in that 12-hour course (BPC §2190.5)
• Alternative to the 12-hour pain course: a one-time 12-hour course in treatment and management of opioid-dependent patients including 8 hours of buprenorphine training (BPC §2190.5)
• General internists and family physicians whose patient population is more than 25% age 65+ must devote at least 20% of CME to geriatric medicine, dementia care, or elder care (BPC §2190.3) — not applicable to psychiatrists
• Initial license issued for less than 13 months: only 25 hours required for the first renewal (16 CCR §1336)
• Passing an ABMS specialty board certifying or recertifying examination earns 100 hours of Category 1 credit covering four consecutive years (16 CCR §1337); up to one-third of hours may come from teaching, and up to 6 hours per month of residency/fellowship training
• No documentation is submitted at renewal; the Board audits a random sample annually and you must retain records for at least 4 years (16 CCR §1338)

Mandated topics

All mandated topic hours count toward the total above.

What this means if you are a board-certified psychiatrist in California

• ABPN sets the pace, not California. ABPN Continuing Certification expects an average of 30 CME per year (90 per 3-year block) plus 16 SA-CME; California's 50 per 2 years (25/yr) is comfortably below that, so any psychiatrist on track for ABPN is on track for California. See the ABPN requirements guide.
• Passing your ABPN recertification examination replaces four years of California CME. 16 CCR §1337 grants 100 Category 1 hours across four consecutive years to any physician who takes and passes a certifying or recertifying examination administered by a recognized specialty board, and §1338 says board-certified physicians need not submit certificates if audited. The regulation is written around passing an examination; if you are using ABPN's Article-Based Continuing Certification pathway instead of the 10-year exam, confirm with the Board before relying on this credit.
• The one-time 12-hour pain/terminal-illness course is the only topic mandate that touches psychiatry; content on Schedule II addiction risk is required for those licensed since 2019. It counts toward the 50 hours and counts as ordinary CME for ABPN (it is not patient-safety or PIP credit by itself).
• California has no licensee-level ethics, suicide-prevention, child-abuse, or human-trafficking CME hours; cultural/linguistic competency and implicit bias are built into every California-accredited course under BPC §2190.1, so you satisfy them automatically.
• California is not a member of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, so telepsychiatry into California requires a full California license and its own 50-hour CME cycle; the pain-management course can be waived for physicians who do not reside in California and do not provide direct patient care.
• Your California license and your ABPN certificate run on separate clocks: the state rules above are checked at license renewal; ABPN checks 90 CME and 16 SA-CME at the end of each 3-year block. One activity can count for both.
• Any AMA PRA Category 1 activity satisfies both. Only activities on the ABPN Approved CC Activities List earn Self-Assessment credit; topic-specific state hours (ethics, opioids, etc.) satisfy the state but are ordinary CME for ABPN.
• A state-mandated patient-safety or risk-management course can also satisfy the ABPN patient safety requirement; a hospital QI project may satisfy your PIP.

Last reviewed August 23, 2026. State figures come from Medical Board of California; ABPN figures from the CC Booklet (June 2025) and CC FAQ (April 2026). See the full ABPN CME requirements guide.

Common questions

How many CME hours does a psychiatrist need in California?

50 hours of approved CME in each two-year renewal period, all of it Category 1-equivalent (AMA/CMA Category 1, AAFP prescribed credit, or another Board-accepted program). If your first license was issued for less than 13 months, only 25 hours are needed for that first renewal.

Does ABPN board certification count toward California CME?

Yes. Under 16 CCR §1337, taking and passing a specialty board certifying or recertifying examination earns 100 Category 1 hours spread over four consecutive years, which covers two full California renewal cycles. The credit is tied to passing the examination; the CME you earn for ongoing ABPN Continuing Certification counts toward the 50 hours normally.

Is the 12-hour pain management course required for psychiatrists in California?

Yes. Every physician except pathologists and radiologists must complete, once, 12 hours in pain management and the treatment of terminally ill and dying patients within four years of licensure or by the second renewal (BPC §2190.5). Physicians licensed on or after January 1, 2019 must also cover the addiction risks of Schedule II drugs. The Board may waive it if you do not provide direct patient care or do not live in California.

When is the California medical license renewal deadline?

Every two years, on the last day of your birth month. CME must be completed within the two years immediately before that expiration date; you attest to compliance on the renewal and keep certificates for four years in case of audit.

Is implicit bias or cultural competency CME required in California?

Not as separate hours for the licensee. BPC §2190.1 requires California-accredited CME providers to build cultural and linguistic competency and implicit bias content into their courses, so taking CMA/ACCME-accredited activities satisfies it automatically.

Do I need CME for my first California license renewal?

Yes. California has no first-renewal exemption; the only relief is that a license initially issued for less than 13 months requires 25 hours instead of 50 (16 CCR §1336). The 12-hour pain management course must be done by your second renewal at the latest.