100 Maintenance of Certification points every five years Pass Maintenance of Certification exam in one's specialty every 10 years Criticism of Maintenance of Certification Program The Maintenance of Certification program has been criticized for taking time away from patient care, not being proven to improve patient care, and costing more in time and expense than it can justify. On February 3, 2015, the American Board of Internal Medicine announced more changes to the Maintenance of Certification program. In a press release, the American Board of Internal Medicine apologized that it had "clearly got it wrong", and it admitted that the program changes in January 2014 were instituted prematurely. The American Board of Internal Medicine has suspended the Patient Survey and Patient Safety components for at least two years, and it will make changes to the secure exam to make it more reflective of medical practice among others. The final form of Maintenance of Certification remains to be seen. On March 10, 2015, an article written by Kurt Eichenwald for Newsweek raised skepticism of the ABIM Foundation and its merit. In July 2015, the Annals of Internal Medicine published an independent cost-analysis of the American Board of Internal Medicine's Maintenance of Certification program. Using simulation modeling of the entire American Board of Internal Medicine-certified workforce of US physicians, researchers from the University of California San Francisco and Stanford University estimated that the Feb 2015 version of American Board of Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification would cost $5.7 billion over ten years, including $561 million in American Board of Internal Medicine's fees and $5.1 billion in time costs (arising from 32.7 million physician hours spent completing Maintenance of Certification requirements). Internists will incur an average of $23,607 (95% CI, $5,380 to $66,383) in Maintenance of Certification costs over 10 years, ranging from $16,725 for general internists to $40,495 for hematologists-oncologists. The authors concluded that "A rigorous evaluation of its effect on clinical and economic outcomes is warranted to balance potential gains in health care quality and efficiency against the high costs identified in this study." For the first time, the American Board of Internal Medicine faces competition in the certification business from another entity, the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (nbpas.org). Much of the controversy about the recent behavior of the American Board of Internal Medicine is detailed on their new competitor's website, including a debate between the rival parties. In