MOL Implementation Halted and Changes at the Medical Board

The efforts of the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) and 10 other Ohio medical associations have contributed to the Medical Board’s vote to suspend further consideration of participation in the Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) pilot project with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). The Board will not be pursuing the implementation of additional MOL activities.

The associations argued that Ohio physicians are currently proving their competency through board-required CME hours, government quality measures reporting, credentialing activities, and health plan quality measures. The associations believe that implementing additional MOL requirements would be a waste of the Medical Board’s time and resources.

This decision was made after extensive discussion by the members of the Medical Board over the past two years and with continual input from the OSMA, and other interested parties, regarding the feasibility of implementing MOL into Ohio's biennial physician licensure renewal process.

Maintenance of Licensure is a system of continuous professional development that requires all licensed physicians to demonstrate, as a condition for licensure renewal, involvement in lifelong learning that is objective, relevant to practice and improves care. The current requirement for physicians to complete 100 hours of CME every two years remains in effect and the board encourages licensees to select CME programs related to the physician's area of practice.

In other medical board news, the medical board’s Executive Director, Richard Whitehouse, announced his resignation last week. The medical board held a special meeting last Friday to accept Director Whitehouse’s resignation and to appoint medical board staff member, Kimberly Anderson, Esq., as the Interim Executive Director. The medical board will now begin the process of finding a permanent replacement for the position.

Want to continue the discussion on the OSMA Community? Click here to post your thoughts and connect with your peers on the OSMA’s member-only forum.