What is Family Medicine CME? Understanding ABFM/AAFP CME Requirements
Family medicine Continuing Medical Education (CME) helps family physicians remain clinically competent, meet applicable certification and membership requirements, and stay up to date with evolving patient care practices. Because family physicians care for patients across the lifespan and address a broad range of conditions, ongoing education is an important part of maintaining clinical knowledge and skills.
Two organizations play important—but different—roles in continuing education and professional requirements for many U.S. family physicians: the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). The AAFP establishes CME requirements for continued active membership, while the ABFM establishes requirements for maintaining ABFM board certification. Each has distinct requirements, credit structures, and cycles that family physicians should understand. State medical boards may impose separate CME requirements for medical license renewal.
Here’s what current ABFM and AAFP requirements involve and how family physicians can plan their CME accordingly.
What is Family Medicine CME?
Family medicine CME refers to accredited educational activities that support family physicians in maintaining and developing their clinical knowledge and competence and may help satisfy applicable certification, membership, or state licensure requirements.
Unlike narrower specialties, family medicine spans internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, behavioral health, dermatology, women’s health, and preventive care. Family medicine CME often reflects that breadth, with education covering a wide range of conditions encountered in primary care.
Depending on the activity and provider, family physicians may earn credits such as AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ or AAFP Prescribed credit. These are distinct credit systems, although the AMA accepts AAFP Prescribed credit as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. Family physicians should verify which types of credit are accepted for their specific certification, membership, and state licensure requirements.
Choosing the right family medicine CME program means prioritizing appropriately accredited or approved education, clinically relevant content, and activities aligned with your specific professional requirements.
ABFM CME Requirements: What Board-Certified Family Physicians Need to Know
The ABFM operates a Continuous Certification program through which Diplomates complete ongoing requirements to maintain board certification. ABFM is currently transitioning Diplomates from three-year certification stages to a five-year certification cycle based on when their next examination requirement occurs.
Because requirements differ depending on where a physician is in that transition, family physicians should review their individual MyABFM Portfolio for their current requirements.
Continuing Medical Education Requirements
ABFM has historically required an average of 50 CME credits per year, with at least half of required CME coming from activities that qualify as Division I credit. However, the credits are tracked as part of the applicable multi-year certification cycle rather than as a requirement to complete exactly 50 CME credits every calendar year.
For Diplomates who remain in a three-year stage, ABFM requires 150 CME credits during the stage. In addition, physicians must earn 50 certification points through Self-Assessment and Performance Improvement activities, including at least one Self-Assessment activity and at least one Performance Improvement activity.
Under the new five-year cycle, Diplomates must earn 200 CME credits, at least 50% of which must qualify as Division I, along with 60 certification points through approved Self-Assessment and Performance Improvement activities.
Self-Assessment Activities
A key component of ABFM CME requirements is self-assessment. ABFM offers several types of Self-Assessment activities designed to help physicians identify and address gaps in clinical knowledge.
For example, ABFM Knowledge Self-Assessment activities currently award both certification points and CME credit. Completing Self-Assessment activities contributes to the separate certification-points requirement while also potentially contributing CME toward the physician’s overall CME requirement.
Performance Improvement Activities
ABFM Continuous Certification also requires participation in Performance Improvement activities. These activities are intended to engage physicians in evaluating and improving aspects of clinical practice and contribute toward the physician’s certification-points requirement.
It is important to distinguish these certification points from CME credits. Although certain ABFM activities may award both, the ABFM requirements for certification points and CME are separate components of Continuous Certification.
Physicians who track ABFM requirements throughout their certification cycle may find it easier to complete the required CME, Self-Assessment, Performance Improvement, and other certification components without needing to address multiple requirements near the end of the cycle.
AAFP CME Requirements: What Active Members Must Complete
The American Academy of Family Physicians sets AAFP CME requirements for continued Active membership. These requirements are separate from ABFM board-certification requirements.
Prescribed and Elective Credit Categories
AAFP CME requirements divide credits into two categories: Prescribed and Elective. Active AAFP members generally must earn and report at least 150 approved CME credits during each three-year reelection cycle, including at least 75 AAFP Prescribed credits. The remaining credits may be Prescribed, Elective, or a combination of the two.
AAFP Prescribed credit is awarded for activities that meet AAFP requirements, including relevance to the scope of family medicine and appropriate family physician involvement in the planning of the activity. AAFP Elective credit includes activities designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™, AOA credit, and certain other eligible professional-development activities.
Some types of CME are subject to maximum credit allowances within a three-year reelection cycle. In addition, some AAFP chapters may require members to earn a specified number of chapter credits.
Topic-Specific CME Requirements
The national AAFP membership requirement does not establish a general requirement that every Active member complete CME in particular topics such as patient safety, risk management, or opioid prescribing. However, individual state medical boards—and in some cases AAFP chapters—may establish additional CME requirements.
For example, physicians in some states may be required to complete education related to controlled substances, opioid prescribing, or other state-mandated topics. Family physicians should review the requirements of their state medical board in addition to AAFP and ABFM requirements.
AAFP Credit and Other CME Requirements
AAFP Prescribed credit and AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ are separate credit designations. Under the AMA/AAFP equivalency agreement, the AMA accepts AAFP Prescribed credit as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. However, AAFP Prescribed credit should continue to be reported as Prescribed credit rather than being relabeled as AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
Conversely, the AAFP accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ as AAFP Elective credit for purposes of its membership CME requirements.
Whether particular CME credits satisfy state medical license renewal requirements depends on the rules of the applicable state medical board. Physicians should verify their state requirements rather than assuming that one credit designation automatically fulfills every obligation.
Staying current with AAFP CME requirements means planning your credit calendar throughout each three-year cycle, not in the final months before your deadline.
Complete Your Family Medicine CME With Oakstone
Your family medicine CME should build clinical depth, not just fulfill a checkbox. Physicians managing the full breadth of family medicine deserve education that matches what they face in the exam room every day.
When selecting CME, family physicians should consider not only clinical relevance but also the type of credit offered and whether it satisfies their ABFM, AAFP, or state licensing requirements.
Oakstone offers accredited CME relevant to family physicians, developed by expert faculty and spanning more than 30 specialties.
Oakstone is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Eligible Oakstone activities may be designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Family physicians seeking AAFP Prescribed credit should review the specific activity’s credit designation rather than assuming that all ACCME-accredited CME automatically qualifies for AAFP Prescribed credit.
Ready to expand your clinical knowledge while working toward applicable CME requirements? Explore Oakstone’s accredited family medicine CME programs today and review each activity’s accreditation and credit information to determine how it applies to your individual requirements.
FAQs
How many CME credits do family physicians need per year?
There is no single annual CME requirement that applies to every family physician. Requirements depend on ABFM certification status, AAFP membership, and state medical licensure.
ABFM describes its CME requirement as averaging 50 credits annually, but credits are completed within the applicable certification cycle. Diplomates in a three-year stage generally need 150 CME credits, while those who have transitioned to the new five-year cycle need 200 CME credits.
Active AAFP members generally need 150 approved CME credits every three years, including at least 75 AAFP Prescribed credits. State medical boards establish separate CME requirements for license renewal.
Are AAFP Prescribed Credits accepted for state license renewal?
Acceptance depends on the individual state medical board. AAFP Prescribed credit is accepted by the AMA as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award, but this equivalency should not be interpreted as a blanket guarantee that every state licensing board will treat the credit identically. Physicians should confirm the requirements of their state medical board.
What is the difference between ABFM and AAFP CME requirements?
ABFM requirements are part of maintaining board certification. Depending on the physician’s current certification cycle, they include required CME as well as separate Self-Assessment, Performance Improvement, professionalism, examination or longitudinal-assessment, and other certification requirements.
AAFP CME requirements apply to continued Active AAFP membership and generally require 150 approved CME credits during a three-year reelection cycle, including at least 75 AAFP Prescribed credits.
A family physician who is both ABFM-certified and an Active AAFP member may therefore have requirements from both organizations, in addition to state medical licensing requirements.
Does family medicine CME need to cover specific clinical topics?
Not necessarily. The national AAFP membership requirements do not establish universal mandatory CME topics for every family physician. However, state medical boards and, in some cases, AAFP chapters may impose additional requirements, including education in particular clinical or regulatory topics.
Family physicians should review their state medical board requirements, AAFP reelection requirements, and ABFM certification requirements to determine whether any topic-specific education applies to them.
Can I complete family medicine CME online?
Yes. Family medicine CME is widely available through online enduring materials and other distance-learning formats. Oakstone offers online CME across family medicine and numerous related clinical specialties, allowing physicians to complete eligible education on a flexible schedule.
Before enrolling, review the activity’s credit designation and confirm that it meets the requirements for which you intend to use it.
Sources
- American Academy of Family Physicians, CME Requirements for AAFP Membership
- American Board of Family Medicine, Continuing Medical Education and Continuous Certification Requirements