Is Your CME Missing MOC Credit? A 2026 Guide to CME for MOC

For CME providers, education partners, and supporters planning physician education

MOC credit is credit a physician earns toward their specialty board's Maintenance of Certification (MOC) or Continuing Certification requirements. Through ACCME's CME for MOC program, an accredited CME activity can award both CME credit and MOC credit at the same time. As of ACCME's September 2026 crosswalk, 10 ABMS member boards take part, across 4 credit types.

Ask your learners why they picked one CME activity over another, and you'll get the usual answers: the topic, the format, who's teaching it, how long it takes. But keep asking, and sooner or later someone will say, "Honestly? It counted toward my boards."

That's the reality for a lot of physicians. Continuing education isn't just about staying sharp. It's also one more item on a certification checklist, and if an activity can check two boxes at once, it's an easy choice. If your activity awards CME credit but not MOC credit, you may be leaving half the value on the table.

ACCME's updated CME for MOC Crosswalk (September 14, 2026) is a useful tool: one page showing which boards participate, what credit types they offer, how each one talks about that credit, and the quirks that trip providers up. Below, we walk through what MOC credit is, which boards offer it, why it's worth offering, and how i3 Health can take the guesswork out of it.

Key takeaways

• 10 boards accept CME for MOC: ABA, ABIM, ABOS, ABOHNS, ABPath, ABP, ABPM, ABPMR, ABS, and ABTS.

• Part II (CME with evaluation and feedback) is the most widely accepted credit type, offered by 8 of the 10 boards.

• Only 3 boards offer all 4 credit types: ABPM, ABPMR, and ABTS.

• Each board names its credit differently, and physicians search for their own board's term.

• Plan for MOC from day one. It shapes your assessment questions, feedback, and improvement component.

What is MOC credit?

Once a physician earns board certification, the work isn't over. Most member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) require ongoing proof that a physician is keeping up, historically called Maintenance of Certification (MOC). Many boards now call it Continuing Certification or Continuous Certification, but it's the same basic idea: show you're still current.

The CME for MOC program lets accredited providers like i3 Health register an activity in ACCME's Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) so it counts toward both CME credit and a learner's board requirements. Same activity, same hour spent, two boxes checked.

The crosswalk breaks MOC credit into four types:

• Accredited CME: standard accredited CME that a board accepts (some boards call this Lifelong Learning).

• ABMS Part II: accredited CME that includes evaluation and feedback.

• ABMS Part IV: accredited CME built as an improvement activity.

• Patient Safety: accredited CME with patient safety content that meets a board's criteria.

Which boards accept CME for MOC in 2026?

Ten boards currently take part in CME for MOC. Each cell shows the name the board uses for that credit type.

Source: ACCME, CME for MOC/CC: Certifying Board Crosswalk Tool, September 14, 2026.

A few things jump out once you look at it this way:

• Part II is the most widely accepted. Eight of the ten boards recognize CME with evaluation and feedback. Part IV and Accredited CME follow, at seven boards each.

• Only three boards offer all four credit types: ABPM, ABPMR, and ABTS.

• A couple are narrower than you might expect. ABP offers only Part II, and ABA offers only Lifelong Learning and Patient Safety.

• Patient Safety credit runs through six boards: ABA, ABIM, ABOHNS, ABPM, ABPMR, and ABTS.

• The list is still growing. ABPMR joined the collaboration in 2026, for activities starting January 1, 2025, or later.

Why the wording matters more than you'd think

Here's something that catches a lot of providers off guard: the boards don't use the same words for the same credit. Take Part II credit. ABIM calls it Medical Knowledge. ABOS calls it Self-Assessment Examination. ABP calls it Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment. ABOHNS, ABPM, ABPMR, ABS, and ABTS call it Self-Assessment. Same credit type, four different labels.

Part IV is even more varied: Practice Assessment (ABIM), Improvement in Medical Practice (ABOHNS), Improvement in Health and Healthcare (ABPath), Quality Improvement (ABS), and Performance in Practice (ABTS).

Why does this matter for your marketing? Because physicians look for whatever term their own board uses. If you advertise "Part II credit" and a pediatrician is scanning for "Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment," they might scroll right past your activity without realizing it applies to them. An internist is looking for "ABIM MOC points" and "Medical Knowledge." Use the board's own language, not the ABMS shorthand, and you'll get in front of more of the people you're trying to reach.

Board-specific rules to check before you register

The crosswalk also calls out a handful of quirks worth flagging before you register anything:

• ABA won't accept board review or board preparation courses, and every activity needs at least one content tag that matches the ABA content outline.

• ABOS requires content related to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries, and Self-Assessment Examination credit must be preapproved by ABOS before it's entered in PARS.

• ABP doesn't accept Committee Learning or PI-CME formats, and learner data should be reported by December 1.

• ABTS won't let an activity carry both Performance in Practice and Patient Safety credit.

None of this is hard to manage, but it's much easier to build into a program from day one than to untangle right before launch. And because the crosswalk is a starting point, not the final word, check anything board-specific against ACCME's CME for MOC Program Guide and the board's own requirements before you register.

Why offer MOC credit?

A few reasons it's worth the extra planning:

• It's a reason to choose your activity. When two activities cover similar ground, the one that also counts toward certification gives a physician more for the same hour.

• It saves your learners a step. Physicians are stretched thin between patient care, paperwork, and their own certification clock. An activity that meets more than one requirement saves time, and they notice who made that possible.

• It builds in reflection on practice. Part II and Part IV credit require evaluation, feedback, or an improvement component, so learners look at their own practice, not just sit through content. That's good for their certification and for the outcomes your supporters care about.

• It strengthens your case to supporters. MOC-eligible programming is a concrete way to show that your education reaches the right audience and is designed to change practice.

In our experience, clients who register their CME for MOC say it's one of the features their physician learners appreciate most.

How to plan a CME activity for MOC: a 5-step checklist

1. Decide early. MOC eligibility affects how you build the activity: your assessment questions, your feedback loop, and your improvement component. Retrofitting it later is a headache.

2. Match boards to your audience. Use the crosswalk to see which boards your learners hold and which credit types fit your format.

3. Read the program guide. The crosswalk points you in the right direction; ACCME's program guide and each board's requirements fill in the rest.

4. Use the board's own terms. Not the ABMS shorthand. Say it the way the board says it, in your promotion and on your certificate.

5. Calendar the deadlines and keep learner data clean. ABOS preapproval and ABP's December 1 reporting date belong on your calendar, not in a footnote. Clean learner data makes PARS reporting painless.

How i3 Health helps

Keeping track of ten boards, four credit types, and a different set of exceptions for each one is a lot to manage on top of everything else that goes into building good CME.

As a jointly accredited provider, i3 Health builds this into how we work. Through joint providership, we partner with organizations that don't hold their own accreditation, so their programs can still carry credit, MOC included, when the activity qualifies. That means we can help you:

• Figure out which boards and credit types make sense for your audience and topic

• Build the activity around each board's requirements from the start, not as an afterthought

• Get the terminology right so learners recognize the credit when they see it

• Handle PARS registration and learner reporting so nothing gets missed

Over the past year, i3 Health has produced over 70 CME activities registered for ABIM MOC credit in the Medical Knowledge category–so when we say we'll handle MOC, we mean it. This way, ABIM diplomates can count on earning credit ward their certificate in the programs we run.

You know your audience and your content. We'll make sure the credit side works. For more on avoiding common accreditation problems, see Mastering CME Accreditation: 5 Common Pitfalls and Expert Strategies to Overcome Them.

Frequently asked questions

Does accredited CME count toward MOC?

It can. Through ACCME's CME for MOC program, an accredited provider can register an eligible activity so that it earns MOC or Continuing Certification credit with participating boards, in addition to CME credit. The activity must meet that board's requirements and be registered in PARS.

What's the difference between MOC Part II and Part IV?

Part II is accredited CME that includes evaluation and feedback, often called self-assessment or medical knowledge. Part IV is accredited CME built as an improvement activity, where learners assess and improve their own practice.

Which boards accept CME for MOC?

As of September 2026, ten boards participate: ABA, ABIM, ABOS, ABOHNS, ABPath, ABP, ABPM, ABPMR, ABS, and ABTS.

Can a jointly provided activity offer MOC credit?

Yes. When the activity qualifies, the accredited provider, such as i3 Health, registers it for MOC and reports learner data on the partner's behalf.

Bottom line

MOC credit is manageable with the right plan, and it makes your education more useful to the physicians you're trying to reach. Build it in from day one, start with ACCME's crosswalk, confirm the details with each board, and use the words your learners are searching for.

Have a program coming up that could be MOC-eligible? Contact i3 Health and let's figure it out together.

Last updated: October 2026. Board participation and credit types are from ACCME's CME for MOC Crosswalk dated September 14, 2026. Confirm current requirements with ACCME and each board before registering an activity.