Description of Board Eligibility
ABMS defines board eligibility as the period of time between when a physician completes an accredited residency program and when initial certification in a specialty is achieved. On January 1, 2012, ABMS established its Board Eligibility Policy which places limits on this time period. The policy recognizes physicians’ need to use the term board eligible as a way to signal their preparations for specialty certification. At the same time, it closes off the potential for abuse through use of the term indefinitely.
ABMS Member Boards with an existing board eligibility policy aligned their board eligible periods with the principles of the established ABMS policy. Member Boards that did not have an existing policy in place established a board eligible period of 3 to 7 years for physicians to achieve initial certification following successful completion of accredited training plus time (if any) in practice. Additionally, the boards established transition dates for physician candidates who had completed training but not yet achieved initial certification in a specialty as of the ABMS policy’s effective date. Those boards chose a date between January 1, 2015 and January 1, 2019 for candidates to achieve initial certification.
When a physician does not achieve initial certification within the board eligibility period, that physician must cease from representing him/herself as being board eligible. The physician must again complete all requirements of the specialty board before admissibility to the certification examination.