CME Credit Process Update

Original publication: March 17, 2023
Update: July 19, 2023

The American Board of Surgery (ABS) Discontinued the CME Credit Self-Claiming Process for Diplomates on July 1, 2023 

Act now so you don't lose earned CME credits.

The American Board of Surgery (ABS) recently made changes to its CME processes, which impact the way that Diplomates interact with the Board, upload CME credits, and meet Certification requirements. You are no longer able to self-claim your credits. A CME provider, such as SVS, must transfer your CME credits for you.  ABS turned off the self-claiming credit process on their website as of July 1, 2023. SVS is committed to complying with the new rules and making your ability to claim credit as seamless as possible, however, we are still in the process of aligning our systems to meet these new requirements.   

The SVS is aware of key dates at the ABS and is working to get all credit to the ABS as soon as possible. We recognize how important this is for all ABS diplomats and aligning our systems is a top priority and we are attempting to find other avenues to speed up the process. This page will be kept up to date and we will continue to communicate any updates to our deliverables as soon as they are confirmed. To ensure all your CME credits earned with SVS are transferred to the ABS, follow the steps outlined below:   

1. Confirm CME credits previously earned with SVS 

If you earned credit for the following activities, SVS has already transferred credit on your behalf. Please login to your ABS portal to confirm your credits are listed. 

If earned credits are missing, please contact education@vascularsociety.org no later than April 1, 2023, so we have time to resolve any issue before the cut-off date of June 30, 2023. 

Confirm Credits

2. Enter Credits Earned with SVS through June 30, 2023

If you earned or will earn credit from SVS and have not self-claimed this credit with ABS, please proceed to ABS and enter these credits by June 30, 2023. 

For example, CME-earning SVS activities may include:

  • Manuscript Review (for JVS, JVS-VL and JVS-CIT)
  • VESAP5 : all of your VESAP5 credit will be transferred to ABS by January 31, 2024.
  • JVS and JVS-VL Journal-Based CME credit 
  • All Vascular Annual Meeting credit earned through June 30, 2023
  • 2023 VQI Annual Meeting credit earned through June 30, 2023

Enter Credits

3. SVS will automatically transfer earned CME credits to ABS after June 30, 2023

For the following upcoming activities SVS will automatically transfer credits on your behalf.  You do not need to take any additional action. Please see the callout to ensure you follow the critical steps for this transfer to occur. 

  • 2023 Coding Workshop (NOTE: This does not include AAPC CEUs)
  • 2023 E/M Coding Workshop (NOTE: This does not include AAPC CEUs)
  • 2023 Complex Peripheral Vascular Interventions Workshop
  • Leadership Development Program - Cohort 4

4. SVS will manually transfer earned CME credits to ABS after June 30, 2023 for specific activities

SVS will periodically transfer the following CME credits to ABS on your behalf until an automated process is established.  In these instances, credits will be transferred to ABS each January 31 and August 1.  While ABS is stating that providers need to transfer credits within 30 days of completing an activity, this is currently not possible for the activities below until an automated process is in place. 

  • JVS and JVS-VL Journal-Based CME credit
  • 2023 Vascular Annual Meeting credit earned starting July 1, 2023 
  • 2023 VQI Annual Meeting credit earned starting July 1, 2023 
  • VESAP5 - If you earned any CME credit for VESAP5 after June 30, 2023, all of your VESAP5 credit will be transferred to the ABS by January 31, 2024.
  • VESAP6 (scheduled to launch late spring 2024)

Credits earned from the above activities between the below dates will be in the ABS system: 

Starting Date Ending Date In the ABS System
January 1 June 30 August 1
July 1 December 31 January 31

As this is an evolving process, SVS will indicate the timing of credits being transferred to ABS on the webpage for each activity.   

Updates: 

VESAP5 - An unforeseen small issue arose when SVS was transferring VESAP5 credit. We are actively working to resolve the issue and expect it to be fully resolved no later than August 30, 2023. The SVS is aware of key dates at the ABS and is dedicated to transferring CME to the ABS as soon as possible. Please check back to this section of the webpage for updates.

Questions? Please contact education@vascularsociety.org

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Four critical steps you can take to ensure your SVS credits are submitted to ABS in a timely fashion:

  1. Read and Review all of the information on this page. If you have questions contact education@vascularsociety.org.
  2. Going forward, complete any required evaluations and submit for credit within 30 days of completion of an activity.  This is a requirement from ABS and ACCME. 

  3. When paying for or accessing a CME activity from any provider going forward, pay attention to the date of when CME credit expires or is no longer available. Granting access to complete evaluations or claim credit after these dates may no longer be possible under the new process. 

  4. Within your member profile and/or within a CME activity, SVS now asks learners to provide or verify the accuracy of Date of Birth and ABS Board ID. Doing this provides SVS with permission to transfer your credits through ACCME to ABS.  It is critical to collect this information to ensure there are no data transfer errors to ABS.  Additionally, if you do not provide this information at the time you are claiming credit, it will not be possible to retroactively update your information and provide permission.