Got this the other day. Read carefully as it may not apply to you.
Today, the ABPMR is sharing great news: Starting in 2020, ABPMR pain medicine diplomates will have the option of using Longitudinal Assessment for Pain Medicine (LA-Pain) instead of the Pain Medicine Examination to fulfill the knowledge assessment requirement for maintaining certification.
After the success of our CertLink pilot this year demonstrating the value LA offers to physiatrists, the ABPMR Board of Directors is thrilled to be able to extend the offering of LA to our pain medicine subspecialty physicians. This change was made possible by the pain medicine subspecialty sponsoring board, the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), whose team built a platform for sponsoring boards’ diplomates to participate in their longitudinal assessment process (called MOCA Minute® for anesthesiologists) starting in 2020.
What does this mean for me?
Instead of taking the secure Pain Medicine Examination by your certificate’s expiration year, you will have the option of participating in LA-Pain instead. Meeting the LA-Pain performance standard by the end of the year your certificate expires will fulfill your exam requirement for MOC. (If you’ve already passed the exam early, congratulations! We’ll have more details over the next year about when you’ll start participating in LA-Pain, but you won’t need to participate to fulfill your exam requirement.)
Due to ABPMR’s focus on implementing LA for PM&R using CertLink in 2020, we are limiting participation in LA-Pain in 2020 to those pain medicine diplomates with certificates expiring in 2020 – but don’t worry! It will open to other pain medicine diplomates starting in 2021, and after full implementation in the next couple of years, all pain medicine diplomates will be participating in LA-Pain on an ongoing basis. The annual enrollment fee for LA-Pain is currently $200.
Pain Medicine Examination Option
While we encourage diplomates to take advantage of the LA-Pain option for its continual learning benefits, we understand some physicians may prefer a secure exam option. The ABA will continue to offer the Pain Medicine Examination as an option for maintaining your certification in pain medicine; the 2019 exam application is currently open (regular deadline is June 30); the application period for next year’s exam will be from March 1 – June 30, 2020.