For quick answers to common questions about board certification and our online medical verification process, consult the list below. If your question does not appear on this list, please contact CertiFACTS Online for assistance.

What is the American Board of Medical Specialties?

Is the CertiFACTS Web site recognized as a primary source of board certification information by The Joint Commission, the Natural Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC)?

Is CertiFACTS Online an ABMS Official Display Agent?

How long has CertiFACTS Online been in business?

Another vendor is saying it provides daily updates, so how often does CertiFACTS Online update its medical board certification information?

Is CertiFACTS the only online medical listings resource for medical board certification verification that is updated daily?

Which ABMS Member Boards issue time-limited certificates, and where do I find more information about when time-limited certificates were first issued?

What are the requirements for medical board certification and recertification?

Why does the CertiFACTS Online database not show the biographical information contained in the ABMS Official Directory of Board Certified Specialists (also called the Compendium)?

Where can I find contact information about an ABMS Member Board?

How do I find out if a particular certificate is issued by one of the 24 ABMS Member Boards?

Do ABMS Member Boards require written or oral medical exams?

How do I find out if a physician is board eligible or board qualified?

Why is a particular physician not board certified?

How do I find information about a medical board not recognized by ABMS?

Why does CertiFACTS Online show medical board certification with expired dates?

Why are some addresses provided by CertiFACTS out of date or not current for some physicians?

What should be done if we find a discrepancy in the ABMS information?

Am I prohibited from sharing the printed CertiFACTS’ medical board certification information with others?

Can I place the medical board certification information on my company’s Web site?

Can we input the medical board certification information into our credentialing software program?

Does the CertiFACTS Online database contain medical board certification information about doctors of osteopathy (DO)?

If doctors are licensed to practice medicine, does that mean they are board-certified physicians?

How do I find out if a physician has had malpractice suits or complaints?

How do I find out if a state medical board has disciplined a physician?

Why is board certification verification for a particular physician not appearing on CertiFACTS Online?

What does certification of a physician by an ABMS Member Board mean?

What should I do if I could not find the answer to my question here?

What is the American Board of Medical Specialties?
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is an organization comprised of 24 approved medical specialty boards. ABMS exists to assist the activities of its member boards and to provide information to the public, government and medical profession concerning issues involving specialization and verification of medical specialists’ board certification.

Is the CertiFACTS Web site recognized as a primary source of board certification information by The Joint Commission, the Natural Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC)?
Yes. The reports offered by ABMS Solutions’ services — CertiFACTS Online, ABMS Certification Profile Service, ABMS Medical Specialists Online and ABMS Direct Connect Select — are recognized and accepted as meeting primary source verification (PSV) requirements, as set by The Joint Commission, NCQA, URAC and other accrediting organizations.

Is CertiFACTS Online an ABMS Official Display Agent?
Yes. We invite you to view the official letter that verifies our status with The American Board of Medical Specialties.

How long has CertiFACTS Online been in business?
We started in October 1999 and currently have several thousand active clients. We were the first to offer online medical listings and primary source verification in conjunction with all 24 ABMS Member Boards. In 2008, we expanded our services to include flexible-search and flexible-subscription packages. Our Suite of Services allows facilities of all sizes the ability to obtain PSV for their medical providers.

Another vendor is saying it provides daily updates, so how often does CertiFACTS Online update its medical board certification information?
Our board certification data is updated daily with the latest ABMS information. As the 24 ABMS Member Boards complete the physician board certification and recertification examination processes, each individual board enters the new/updated board certification information into its respective database. The individual board also forwards this data to ABMS to be uploaded, matched and thoroughly checked for quality and assurance. Once this process is complete, the data is activated, and our subscribers can access up-to-date board certification verification. (Note: In the case of newly certified physicians, medical board certification information may not be available in the CertiFACTS database for 90 days following a congratulatory letter to the physician from an ABMS Member Board. In the interim, you can contact the ABMS Member Board you believe is responsible for the physician’s medical board certification.)

Is CertiFACTS the only online medical listings resource for medical board certification verification that is updated daily?
We are the only online resource that provides daily database updates for and verification of physician/medical board certification. These updates reflect the latest ABMS information.

Which ABMS Member Boards issue time-limited certificates, and where do I find more information about when time-limited certificates were first issued?
All 24 ABMS Member Boards now issue time-limited certificates of varying lengths, depending on the board. Physicians who were certified before the initiation of these time-limited certificates have been grandfathered and do not have to seek medical board recertification, although many physicians choose to recertify even if they have lifetime certification. This is why you may see subsequent medical board certifications after an initial lifetime certificate. Some boards also offer limited medical board recertification for shorter periods of time to help fulfill physician CME requirements, resulting in overlapping dates. To find out when each board began offering time-limited certifications, please consult Time-Limited Table: General Certificates and Time-Limited Table: Subspecialty Certificates.

What are the requirements for medical board certification and recertification?
We have divided the requirements for medical board certification and recertification into four categories: time-limited general certificates, time-limited subspecialty certificates, general certification and time-limited recertification. Click on the links to view tables containing more ABMS information.

Why does the CertiFACTS Online database not show the biographical information contained in the ABMS Official Directory of Board Certified Specialists (also called the Compendium)?
This information is self reported by the physician and is unverified ABMS information that is not a part of the ABMS database. ABMS and another licensee co-publish the books and have a joint copyright on self-reported biographical data. Because it is unverified information, the data does not satisfy PSV requirements.

Where can I find contact information about an ABMS Member Board?
To learn more about ABMS Member Boards, visit our web page that lists all 24 ABMS Member Boards with contact information.

How do I find out if a particular certificate is issued by one of the 24 ABMS Member Boards?
Visit our Recognized Physician Specialty and Subspecialty Certificates page to view a complete list of board-certified medical disciplines.

Do ABMS Member Boards require written or oral medical exams?
Some member boards only require a written exam, while some require both written and oral exams. We will not have board certification verification until the physician completes and passes both portions of the exam and receives either a certificate or a congratulatory letter. A list of exam requirements is shown in the following tables: Requirements for General Certification and Requirements for Time-Limited Certification. Written exams are generally given in the fall or winter, and oral tests are offered in either spring or summer.

How do I find out if a physician is board eligible or board qualified?
Until a physician has attained medical board certification, only the individual member board can provide information as to whether the physician is in the boarding process. Most of the boards no longer recognize the term "board eligible" and can only tell you if the physician is "board qualified," which means the physician has applied to take and has been accepted to take the exam.

Policy statement for the term "board eligible": Due to continuing confusion about usage of "board eligible," the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) wishes to reiterate its position about the term. The specific term "board eligible" has been given such diverse meanings by different agencies that it has lost its usefulness as an indicator of a physician’s progress toward medical certification by a specialty board. Furthermore, because some candidates have used the term year after year while making no perceptible progress toward certification, it has sometimes been accepted improperly as a permanent alternative to medical board certification. The requirements for admission to the certification process change from time to time, making the term "board eligible" equally susceptible to changes in meaning. For these reasons, ABMS recommends to its member boards that use of the term "board eligible" be disavowed. Instead, the boards are urged to respond to inquiries by stating an individual’s precise position in the certification process.

Why is a particular physician not board certified?
Physician board certification is a voluntary process that approximately 80 percent of doctors in the U.S. obtain. A physician is licensed by the state to "practice medicine and surgery," and medical board certification is not a requirement for licensure. Licensed physicians may practice in whatever medical disciplines interest them and can legally practice in that field of interest without obtaining a medical residency or fellowship. Board certification, however, means that a physician’s skills and knowledge in the specialty/subspecialty has been examined and meets standardized requirements by an ABMS Member Board. Additionally, some of the surgical specialties require one or more years of experience before physicians can take their board-certifying exams (the number of years varies according to each board). The physician in question may fit that category and may be working to satisfy the requirements for medical board certification. Most international medical graduates need to complete some required training in this country before they are able to take a particular board’s exam (if all the postgraduate training is completed in another country). Exceptions are made and vary with each board. (Some boards may accept Canadian and/or United Kingdom residencies. Call the ABMS Member Board for additional information.)

How do I find information about a medical board not recognized by ABMS?
There are hundreds of self-designated medical boards across the country, but unless the board is recognized by ABMS, CertiFACTS does not have information about its particular requirements for certification and cannot grant medical board certification verification. A few boards have applied for ABMS membership and have not met the criteria; many others have never applied for approval.

Why does CertiFACTS Online show medical board certification with expired dates?
If the board certification verification is within the past year, the physician may have recertified, but, for whatever reason, this board certification information has not yet been forwarded to ABMS. You will need to contact the board directly to inquire about that particular physician. We have chosen to keep diplomates with expired medical certificates in the database so you can access the status and decide if you wish to investigate further. Medical board certification that we know is expired will show up in red text on the results screen. If we have no ending date on a time-limited medical certificate, the result will not show up in red; however, please refer to the time-limited tables for further information, or contact the member board directly.

Why are some addresses provided by CertiFACTS out of date or not current for some physicians?
If a board-certified physician has not notified his or her member board of the address change, we will only have the last-known address. ABMS has chosen not to display home addresses in situations we know they are home addresses. Please access the Change of Address form (PDF file — Adobe Acrobat required to view), which should be completed by the physician and mailed or faxed back to us. We will forward this to ABMS. Expect some delay before the updated information appears. In some cases, the physician may have notified the member board of a change of address, but the certifying board may not have contacted ABMS with the new information.

What should be done if we find a discrepancy in the ABMS information?
Please contact CertiFACTS Online so that we can obtain the necessary documentation and correct any errors to doctors’ information in our online medical listings. In a database of almost 800,000 names, some situations of data-entry errors or misspellings are rare but can happen. Although such discrepancies are typically minimal, with your assistance, we can correct any misinformation about doctors’ credentials or certifications.

Am I prohibited from sharing the printed CertiFACTS’ medical board certification information with others?
Please refer to your signed legal agreement for clarification on this issue, or contact CertiFACTS by phone at 1-800-733-2267.

Can I place the medical board certification information on my company’s Web site?
You can reference a physician’s board certification status but may not reveal the date of certification on a Web site unless you have a legal agreement with ABMS.

Can we input the medical board certification information into our credentialing software program?
Yes, as long as you abide by the confidentiality terms of the legal agreement that governs your use of the ABMS data. Dates may be entered into your credentialing program for internal use as long as the information will not be accessible to anyone not covered under the agreement.

Does the CertiFACTS Online database contain medical board certification information about doctors of osteopathy (DO)?
Only if the board-certified physician has completed an ACGME approved residency program can a DO sit for the ABMS board exams and, in turn, be listed in the CertiFACTS Online database and on our Web site. If a physician’s postgraduate training is osteopathic, then he or she is only eligible to take the exams administered by the American Osteopathic Association; ABMS information does not contain specific AOA data.

If doctors are licensed to practice medicine, does that mean they are board-certified physicians?
No. Obtaining a medical license and being certified as a medical specialist by an ABMS Member Board are separate processes. A medical license, which is legally required in order to treat patients, is issued and required by the state or territory in which a doctor practices medicine. A specialty certificate is issued by a medical-certifying board and is valid nationwide. Although medical board certification is not required for an individual physician to practice medicine, most hospitals and managed-care organizations require a certain percentage of their staff members to be board certified. Today, one or more ABMS Member Boards certify approximately 80 percent of licensed physicians.

How do I find out if a physician has had malpractice suits or complaints?
For doctors’ malpractice records, contact the applicable state medical board or the National Physician Databank. For a complete listing of state licensing medical boards, visit the Federation of State Medical Boards Web site and click the "State Medical Board Info" link.

How do I find out if a state medical board has disciplined a physician?
For more information on a physician’s disciplinary history, visit docinfo.org, which offers instant access to a nationally consolidated database of state disciplinary data.

Why is board certification verification for a particular physician not appearing on CertiFACTS Online?
To ensure a correct match for board certification verification, make certain that you are using the physician’s correct legal name or the name used on the board certificate. For a married female physician, check the maiden name if you cannot find her under the current name. Physicians occasionally change their legal names, and the board will change this information in its database and issue a new certificate. Listed below are a few reasons a board-certified physician’s credentials may not appear when the information is searched:

• If a physician has recently obtained medical board certification or recertification, the member board may not have updated ABMS with the information by the time of your search. Depending on the board, updating can take several months from the date of the congratulatory letter.

• Each member board does not update ABMS with the necessary information each month. Boards enter all the medical board certification results for a complete exam period, and then download the entire file to ABMS when the process is complete. This is why you may see the board certification verification on the internal medicine, family medicine or pediatric Web sites before it appears through CertiFACTS.

• Make certain that the medical board certificate you are trying to verify is issued by an ABMS Member Board. Only physicians and some physicists are granted board certification by an ABMS Member Board. CertiFACTS Online does not have information on dentists, podiatrists, chiropractors or other allied healthcare professionals. If an American osteopathic board issues a medical certificate, then you will have to obtain doctors’ information from the American Osteopathic Association.

• Some board-certified physicians request the boards not publish their information in any commercial venue. If the physician has not released this "non-publication" request with a board, the ABMS information will not appear on the CertiFACTS Online Web site. We can notify you if a physician is in this category if you fax us a request.

• The physician may have only completed the written exam and has not yet taken the orals (some boards require both written and oral exams). Make certain that the complete medical board certification process has taken place.

What does certification of a physician by an ABMS Member Board mean?
Specialty medical boards certify physicians who have met certain published standards. A board-certified physician is verified upon completion of an approved educational training program and an evaluation process, which includes an examination designed to assess the physician’s knowledge, skills and experiences. Currently, the American Board of Medical Specialties recognizes 24 specialty boards. All the ABMS-recognized specialties and subspecialties can be accessed on our Specialties and Subspecialties page. Physicians must be trained and certified as specialists in order to be certified as subspecialists by ABMS boards. Each medical board certification process varies per respective member board and may include the following:

• Completion of a course of study leading to the MD or DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) degree from a recognized school of medicine.

• Completion of three to seven years of full-time training in an accredited residency program designed to train specialists in the field.

• Assessments and documentation of individual performance from the residency training director or chief of service in the hospital where the specialist has practiced.

• An unrestricted license to practice medicine in order to take the medical board certification examination.

• A written examination given by the specialty board. Many of the 24 specialty boards also require an oral examination conducted by senior specialists in their respective fields. Candidates who have passed the exams and requirements are then given the status of "Diplomate" and are certified as specialists. A similar process is followed for specialists who want to become subspecialists.

What should I do if I could not find the answer to my question here?
For more information about our online medical listings or to obtain board certification verification information, please contact CertiFACTS immediately.