RT Journal
A1 Benbassat R, Zanga J, Dubravec M
T1 Maintenance of certification in internal medicine—realities: In an “uninvited commentary” to the levinson and holmboe article
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2011
FD September 12
VO 171
IS 16
SP 1507
OP 1508
DO 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.386
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2011.386
AB 
Although certification and recertification were originally designed to ensure quality in patient care, they have evolved into a discriminatory, money-making juggernaut with marketing to hospitals, insurers, and licensing boards, and—without any reasonable proof of efficacy—are slowly being tied to the right to practice medicine. The Commentary by Levinson and Holmboe1 is somewhat equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rationalizing a costly tax increase as a benefit to the taxpayer. It is outrageous that hard-working physicians are subject to rules devised by institutional physicians and PhDs salaried by the ABIM—bureaucrats who do not run businesses or practice medicine on a daily basis.