CME Requirements by Specialty — Track Credits (2026)

CME for state licensure is required by your state medical board to renew your medical license. These requirements are set by each state and vary in total hours, credit types, and mandatory topics. CME for board certification (Maintenance of Certification or MOC) is required by your specialty board (ABMS member boards) to maintain your board certification. These are separate requirements with separate tracking. Some CME activities count toward both, but not always. A provider must meet both sets of requirements independently. FileFlo tracks CME credits against both state and board requirements for all providers at $299/month.

The answer depends on both the state and the specialty board. State requirements range from 12.5 to 50 credits per year (25 to 100 per 2-year cycle, or up to 50 per year for states like Washington with 4-year cycles). Board certification requirements add additional CME obligations that vary by specialty. On average, a physician licensed in one state with one board certification needs 40 to 80 CME credits per year when combining state and board requirements. Multi-state, multi-board-certified providers may need 100+ credits annually.

AMA PRA Category 1 credits are the gold standard for CME. They must come from activities approved by an ACCME-accredited CME provider. Examples include: accredited conferences, online courses from accredited providers, journal-based CME, and point-of-care learning. Not all educational activities qualify; only those specifically designated as Category 1 by an accredited provider count. Most states require at least 50% (and some require 100%) of CME hours to be Category 1. Category 2 credits (self-directed learning, teaching, publications) are accepted by some states as a portion of total requirements.

Failure to complete required CME has consequences at two levels. State level: the medical board may not renew the license, issue a conditional license, or require the provider to complete additional hours before reinstatement. Board level: the specialty board may change the provider's certification status to 'not meeting requirements,' which affects credentialing at facilities. Both scenarios create problems for organizations: a provider who cannot renew their license cannot practice, and a provider without current board certification may not meet facility credentialing requirements or payer network criteria.

In many cases, yes. A single CME activity can often count toward: state licensure renewal, board MOC requirements, and hospital privileging requirements. However, this depends on the activity type and the specific requirements of each entity. For example, an ACCME-accredited Category 1 activity in your specialty area may count toward your state CME requirement, your ABMS board MOC knowledge assessment requirement, and your hospital's ongoing education requirement. The key is documentation: you need to track which credits apply to which requirements.

Multi-provider organizations need a centralized system that: tracks each provider's CME credits against both their state requirements and their board certification requirements, categorizes credits by type (Category 1, Category 2, specialty-specific), monitors progress toward cycle deadlines, alerts providers and administrators when CME completion is falling behind, and generates reports for credentialing committees and payer audits. FileFlo handles all of this at $299/month with unlimited providers, automatically extracting CME data from uploaded certificates and tracking against applicable requirements.