CALIFORNIA CME REQUIREMENTS

Credit amount:

• For MDs, California requires 50 hours of approved CME credits per licensure cycle. All must be Category 1 approved.
• For DOs, effective January 1, 2018, licensees must complete 100 CME hours per licensure cycle; 40 hours must be AOA Category 1A or 1B.

AMA/ACOG/AAFP/AOA:

• California : 50
• California-O : 12

CME/Year:

• California : 100
• California-O : 150

Hours/Year:

• California : 25
• California-O : 50

Licensure cycle: 

• California :Biennial-for licenses issued after July 1, 2018, the license expires at midnight on the expiration date, which is the last day of the month in which it was issued. For licenses issued before July 1, 2018, the license expires at midnight on the expiration date, which is the last day of the physician's birth month. If an initial license was issued for less than 13 months, only 25 hours must be completed.
• California-O : 3

Equivalent Certificates:

• California : AMA PRA app, ABMS, SMS
• California-O : AOA, AAFP, CMA, CAFP

Topics:

• California : 50 hours of CME during each biennial renewal cycle (every two years). If an initial license was issued for less than 13 months, only 25 hours must be completed. All must be Category 1 approved. All physicians (except pathologists and radiologists) are required to take, as a one-time requirement, 12 units on pain-management and end-of-life care. Physicians must complete this requirement by their second license renewal date or within four years, whichever comes first. Alternatively, a physician and surgeon may complete a one-time continuing education course of 12 credit hours in treatment & management of opiate-dependent patients, including 8 hours of training in buprenorphine treatment or other similar medicinal treatment for opioid use disorders.
  General internists and family physicians with 25% of elderly patient population must complete at least 20% of CME in geriatric medicine
• California-O : Pain management, geriatric medicine, end-of-life care; AOA cert. accepted if accompanied by AOA registration

The California Medical Board is California’s governing body for CME and medical license requirements. Their mission is to:

“assists licensees and registrants in renewing and managing the status of their license or registration, provides updated information on the legal and regulatory requirements that impact their respective scopes of practice, and describes various programs and resources available to licensees.”

The California - O Board of Medical Examiners and the Medical Licensure Commission of California - O are California - O’s governing bodies for CME and medical license requirements. Their mission is to:

“assists licensees and registrants in renewing and managing the status of their license or registration, provides updated information on the legal and regulatory requirements that impact their respective scopes of practice, and describes various programs and resources available to licensees.”

Additional information can be found on their website which includes information pertaining to basic requirements, educational requirements, frequently asked questions, requests for license verification, and more.

All information from Federation of State Medical Boards is subjected to change. It should be verified independently.