CME Credit Process Update

Original publication: March 17, 2023
Update: September 20, 2023

See the latest updates below.
View past updates here.
The American Board of Surgery (ABS) Discontinued the CME Credit Self-Claiming Process for Diplomates on July 1, 2023 

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. 

• 2022 & 2023 VRIC
• 2022 E/M Coding Workshop (NOTE: This does not include AAPC CEUs)
• 2022 Coding Workshop (NOTE: This does not include AAPC CEUs)
• 2022 Complex Peripheral Vascular Interventions Workshop
• Leadership Development Program - Cohort 3

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. 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

3. 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 Issues Feb. 2022-Sept. 2023 – credit earned through Sept. 11, 2023 has been transferred. The next credit transfer will be January 31, 2024
• 2023 Vascular Annual Meeting credit has been transferred.
• 2023 VQI Annual Meeting credit has been transferred. 
• VESAP5  credit has been transferred. 
• VESAP6 (scheduled to launch late spring 2024)

Credit transfer schedule for the above activities:

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

Updates: 

If the following conditions were met, your CME credit has been transferred to the American Board of Surgery (ABS). You may verify if your credit was transferred by logging into your ABS account.

• You are certified by the ABS.
• You earned credit for any of the activities above.
• (VESAP5 only) The most recent date you earned credit for a module was in 2021, 2022, or 2023.
• Your SVS account, or the information you provided SVS to claim credit, exactly matches your ABS account for the following fields:
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Date of Birth (just month and day need to match)
  • ABS Board ID # (preceding zeros can display or not display & still match)

What if I do not see my credit in my ABS account?

For all activities listed in this section EXCEPT JVS and JVS-VL

If you do not see credit in your ABS account for the activities noted above that SVS has transferred credit for, follow these step-by-step instructions to update your SVS account to match your ABS account for the four fields above. Emails were also sent from education@vascularsociety.org in mid-late August to the email address we have on file requesting you do the same. Please DO NOT inform SVS when you update your account. Staff is able to see that you have updated your SVS account and will attempt to transfer your credit again per the schedule below. This will allow staff to work quicker and focus their efforts on resolving account matching issues en masse.

Please check this webpage for updates and continue to check your ABS account to see if your credit has been transferred.

For JVS and JVS-VL

Please take action as follows by October 12, 2023 if you earned credit for JVS or JVS-VL Issues August 2022 - September 2023 by September 11, 2023, and your credit is not showing in your ABS account.

1. Please log in to your ABS account.
2. Email the following details, as they appear in your ABS account, to Carlee Green (cgreen@vascularsociety.org).
   1. First Name
   2. Last Name
   3. Date of Birth (just month and day needed)
   4. ABS Board ID # (preceding zeros can display or not display & still match)
3. Reference the schedule below for when SVS will re-transfer your credit, and when it will appear in your ABS account.

CME Re-Transfer Schedule For Diplomates Whose Credit Did Not Originally Transfer

*This second credit transfer is offered for diplomates who miss the deadline to update their SVS account to match their ABS account. 

VESAP5 Credit Only – Please Read

If the most recent date you earned credit for a VESAP5 Comprehensive Package or Vascular Lab module was in 2020, and you did not self-report credit to the ABS by the July 1, 2023 cutoff date, please contact the ABS and request they add your credit earned in 2020 directly to your ABS account for VESAP5. The SVS joined the collaboration to transfer credit to the ACCME and ABS in 2021. As such, the system is unable to accept credit earned in 2020.

If for example, you earned credit for VESAP5 in 2020 and 2021 or later, all of your credit has been transferred to the ABS (or will be once your SVS account matches your ABS account as noted above). 

4. SVS is unable to transfer credit for these past CME activities.
If you earned credit for any of the following activities and did not self-report them to the ABS by June 30, 2023, please contact the ABS to report your credits directly to the ABS, as the SVS does not have a way to retroactively report credit for these past activities. 

• JVS and JVS-VL Journal Issues January 2022 or prior 
• VAM 2022 or prior

You can view past updates to this process here.

Questions? Please contact education@vascularsociety.org