American Board of Internal Medicine

The organization’s certification process has not been without controversy. ABIM has a program called “maintenance of certification” through which doctors pay ABIM in order to maintain their certification. Some doctors and critics of ABIM claim maintenance of certification is worthless. ²

In April 2021, the organization included “health equity” questions in its maintenance of certification exams that doctors must take every 10 years to maintain their ABIM certification. ³

Overview

The American Board of Internal Medicine is a professional certification organization of doctors in the United States. The organization claims to certify one-quarter of all practicing doctors. The organization claims that the total number of doctors certified by them in the U.S. is over 200,000. ¹

Maintenance of Certification

The American Board of Internal Medicine runs a controversial “maintenance of certification” program that doctors must complete to maintain their certification. Some doctors have complained that maintenance of certification has not been proven to improve the quality of health care. ²

Liberal journalist Kurt Eichenwald reported that from 2009 through 2014, ABIM paid the lobbying firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti $390,000 and that according to the lobbying firm, it was paid to provide “strategic advice” on Obamacare related to “physician quality reporting requirements.” However, when ABIM submitted its tax filings for those years, it claimed that it did not spend money on lobbying. ²

Eichenwald further reported that ABIM benefited from a clause in Obamacare that paid physicians to take their maintenance of certification. The language that defined MOC was along the lines of the ABIM’s program, leading Eichenwald to allege that ABIM had lobbied for it. ²

Accounting Practices

Eichenwald reported that Charles Kroll, a health care accountant, found questionable accounting practices in ABIM’s financial disclosures. Between 2008 and 2013, the organization and its related ABIM Foundation lost $39.8 million on its program services, while they paid out $125.7 million to senior officers and staff in salaries and other compensation. ²

The organization was able to pay out those massive salaries while taking losses by classifying money that came in from doctors paying their recertification fees as “deferred revenue.” Kroll told Eichenwald that the money was used to prop up the organization. ²

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies

Beginning in June 2020, ABIM and the ABIM Foundation began pushing a far-left critical race theory agenda and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” through certifications and medical school curriculum that it funds. ³

Starting in April 2021, ABIM included “health equity” questions in MOC exams. ³ According to the Washington Free Beacon, as of July 2022: ³

ABIM has not elaborated on the “health equity” questions it will pose, but it has dropped hints. Earlier this month, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released a list of “DEI competencies” that ABIM has endorsed. They include the practice of “allyship” in the face of “microaggression[s]” and call on residents to demonstrate their knowledge of “intersectionality” and “engage with systems to disrupt oppressive practices.”

Leadership

Richard Baron is the president and chief executive officer of both ABIM and the ABIM Foundation. Before taking his position at ABIM and ABIM Foundation, he was the group director of Seamless Care Models at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center. Before he joined the federal government, he practiced medicine for nearly 30 years. ⁴

Funding

According to its 2020 tax filings, the organization had $64,314,534 in revenue and $54,113,789 in expenses. It had net assets of -$29,882,690. ⁵

President Richard Baron was paid a salary of $701,774 by ABIM in tax year 2020, plus an additional $175,444 from related organizations and $119,352 in estimated other compensation. ⁵