What are the acceptable sources of primary source verification (PSV) for Board Certification?
Response: Since the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is a designated primary equivalent source for verification of board certification by its Member Boards, where it releases this verification information to other entities, it must identify those that it considers primary and those that are not. In turn, URAC recognizes those sources that the ABMS has designated as primary equivalents as ones that are primary as well. The ABMS has indicated that two products published by Elsevier Science, “The Official ABMS Directory of Board Certified Medical Specialists” and the CD “ABMS Medical Specialists Plus” as ones that are not to be used for primary source verification (PSV), in part since the complete physician date of birth has been removed from these sources. I will refer you to the document entitled, “Official ABMS® Display Agent List” dated September 15, 2006, found on the ABMS website: http://www.abms.org/Who_We_Help/Professional_Organizations/pdf/DisplayAgentList.pdf. Of not
