MD/DO · Requirements & free courses
Pennsylvania requires 100 hours every 2 years for MD/DO renewal, including 5 topic-specific mandates. Every one of them has a free option below unless we say otherwise.
Dr. Jones holds an active Pennsylvania medical license. These are requirements he tracks for his own renewal, not just ones he has read about.
Each requirement below is paired with activities we opened and verified ourselves.
12 hours.
Mass General Brigham
The most efficient option for Massachusetts: 2 credits that satisfy the one-time implicit bias requirement AND double-count toward the 10-credit risk management requirement.
Mass General Brigham
Fulfills the Massachusetts end-of-life requirement and carries risk management credit at the same time.
AHRQ Patient Safety Network (CME by UC Davis Health)
1 credit per case, new cases published roughly monthly plus a large back catalog. The single best free source for Pennsylvania's 12 patient safety hours and Massachusetts risk management credit. Carries ABIM MOC.
Heads up: Spotlight Cases older than three years stay readable but their quizzes are disabled, so only cases from roughly the last three years actually yield credit. Also does NOT satisfy Florida's Prevention of Medical Errors requirement, which has board-prescribed content.
Our finding: Florida's two-hour Prevention of Medical Errors course has board-prescribed content — the five most-misdiagnosed conditions, root cause analysis, and more. No generic patient safety course satisfies it, and every Florida-approved provider we checked charges. The cheapest verified option was $9.95. AHRQ PSNet is an excellent free substitute for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts credit, but not for Florida.
More options on the patient safety page.
2 hours per renewal (3 hours at initial licensure) from a Pennsylvania Act 31 approved provider.
University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work / PA DHS
On the Pennsylvania Department of State's approved provider list. Credits transmit automatically to PALS within 7–10 business days.
Heads up: You must enter your full legal name, DOB, SSN and PA license number exactly for credits to post. Not AMA PRA Category 1 — it satisfies Act 31 directly. Pennsylvania licensees only.
Penn State College of Medicine
Heads up: No AMA PRA Category 1 designation is published, despite Penn State's ACCME accreditation. Verify inside the platform if you need Category 1 credit rather than just Act 31 compliance.
More options on the child abuse page.
2 hours.
PCSS / American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
Bundle worth up to 15 credits; 8 are needed for the DEA attestation.
PCSS / Opioid Response Network
14 stand-alone modules, roughly 0.75–1.25 credits each. Take only what you need.
NEJM Group / Massachusetts Medical Society
Explicitly satisfies the full one-time 8-hour DEA requirement in a single program. No NEJM or MMS membership needed. Carries ABIM, ABA and ABS MOC.
PCSS / American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
SAMHSA grant-funded. Completing all 8 courses earns a digital badge that PCSS states fulfills the DEA 8-hour requirement. The landing page designates 9.25 credits generally; AMA PRA Category 1 is among the credit types offered.
More options on the opioids & pain page.
2 hours.
PCSS / American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
Bundle worth up to 15 credits; 8 are needed for the DEA attestation.
PCSS / Opioid Response Network
14 stand-alone modules, roughly 0.75–1.25 credits each. Take only what you need.
NEJM Group / Massachusetts Medical Society
Explicitly satisfies the full one-time 8-hour DEA requirement in a single program. No NEJM or MMS membership needed. Carries ABIM, ABA and ABS MOC.
PCSS / American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
SAMHSA grant-funded. Completing all 8 courses earns a digital badge that PCSS states fulfills the DEA 8-hour requirement. The landing page designates 9.25 credits generally; AMA PRA Category 1 is among the credit types offered.
More options on the opioids & pain page.
2 hours every 5 years — within 5 years of initial licensure or of your last renewal, whichever comes first. The statute is Act 90 of 2018; what is new is the Board's implementing regulation, operative May 1, 2026. Counts toward your 100.
Any accredited activity in this subject counts. Browse our verified free list or check your specialty society.
What it costs, how long it takes, and what catches people out. Aimed at physicians taking assignments here rather than those already established.
Fully implemented July 7, 2025, and Pennsylvania can serve as your state of principal license. Note there are two separate boards — Medicine for MDs, Osteopathic Medicine for DOs — with different fees and different deadlines.
One of the cheapest in the country for a graduate of an accredited US or Canadian school; $85 if your medical school was unaccredited. Fingerprinting through IdentoGO is separate.
Every two years, expiring December 31 of even-numbered years. DOs are on a different calendar entirely — October 31 of even years, at $450.
The Board states only that applications are processed in the order received. No target, no dashboard, no current-processing date. Commercial licensing services quote 8–16 weeks; that figure has no official source and we will not repeat it as fact.
Act 64 exempts practitioners licensed by their own board, and the Department of Health confirms it does not issue individual practitioner CDS licences. Your DEA registration plus PDMP registration is the whole set.
Flat state rate, but that is only the first layer. Local Earned Income Tax applies at your work location, Philadelphia levies 3.425% on nonresidents with no minimum-days threshold, and the Local Services Tax adds up to $52. Reciprocity with six states covers none of the local layers.
Pennsylvania mandates $1M per occurrence and $3M annual aggregate, structured as $500K/$1.5M of primary insurance plus a matching $500K/$1.5M from the state MCARE Fund. The 2026 assessment is 29% of the JUA base rates. The trap: insurers must remit within 60 days of policy inception, and MCARE will not cover or defend a claim if all monies due were not remitted before that claim was first reported. If your staffing agency handles the paperwork and drops it, your excess layer evaporates after the fact. Mandatory participation applies to physicians doing 50% or more of their practice in Pennsylvania — a fact-specific line that can move mid-year as your assignment mix changes.
Sources: Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine, 49 Pa. Code §§ 16.13, 16.19, 16.32, Act 64 of 1972, Act 31 of 2014, 20 Pa.C.S. § 8628 (Act 90 of 2018), MCARE 2026 Assessment Manual, PA Department of Revenue, DCED, phila.gov, IMLCC member list (March 2026). Verified August 22, 2026.
A one-time 8 hours on substance use disorders, required of every DEA-registered practitioner regardless of state, due at your next registration or renewal. The attestation does not recur — you will not be asked again at future DEA renewals.
PCSS / American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
Bundle worth up to 15 credits; 8 are needed for the DEA attestation.
PCSS / Opioid Response Network
14 stand-alone modules, roughly 0.75–1.25 credits each. Take only what you need.
You may already be covered. The requirement is satisfied without new coursework if you are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, graduated within the past five years from a qualifying program whose curriculum included the required content, or previously completed DATA-2000 waiver training.
More at MATE Act options.
Boards revise requirements mid-cycle and interpret them differently. Confirm against your own board’s current rules — find yours here — before counting an activity toward renewal.