Mississippi Changes How Physicians Report CME (Feb. 2026)

Mississippi has changed the way physicians show the state they have met their continuing medical education (CME) obligation. The Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure (MSBML) updated its CME reporting rules effective February 27, 2026. The key thing to understand up front: this changes the reporting process, not the number of hours you have to earn.

What is changing

Beginning February 27, 2026, MD and DO physicians licensed in Mississippi no longer submit CME documentation directly to the Board. Instead, CME compliance is verified through an approved CME tracking organization or through active specialty-board certification. In plain terms, the Board is moving from “send us your CME paperwork” to “prove compliance through a recognized system or your active board certification.”

These reporting updates apply only to MD and DO physician licensees. They do not change CME requirements for physician assistants or other license types.

What is not changing

The underlying CME requirement is the same:

• How much: 40 hours of Category 1 CME during each two-year CME cycle.
• When: you certify compliance at renewal in even-numbered years. The current two-year cycle runs July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2026.
• Records: even though documentation is no longer submitted to the Board, you must still keep your own CME records in case of an audit.

Separately — and unchanged by this reporting update — a DEA-registered practitioner’s one-time 8-hour training on opioid or substance use disorder treatment satisfies the Board’s controlled-substance training requirement.

How compliance is verified now: two options

Under the new rules, an MD or DO can demonstrate CME compliance through one of two methods:

• Option 1 — A Board-recognized CME tracking organization. Maintain an account with an approved tracking organization. The Board recognizes organizations including CE Broker and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). If you use a tracking system, make sure your Mississippi medical license is properly identified within it so your credits are correctly attributed to you.
• Option 2 — Active specialty-board certification. Maintain active certification with a specialty board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Important caveat: lifetime certification, without ongoing maintenance of certification (MOC), does not satisfy this requirement.

The Board also notes that it does not operate or control these third-party tracking or certification organizations and is not responsible for the accuracy, availability, or performance of those external systems. You remain responsible for maintaining documentation and ensuring compliance.

What physicians should do

1. Figure out which route fits you. If you hold active ABMS or AOA board certification with ongoing MOC, you may already satisfy the verification requirement through Option 2. If not, register with a Board-recognized CME tracking organization under Option 1.
2. Confirm your Mississippi license is correctly linked. If you use a tracking organization, credits do not count toward you unless the account is tied to your Mississippi license.
3. Keep your own certificates. Direct submission to the Board is gone, but the audit responsibility is not. Retain proof of every credit.
4. Keep earning the 40 hours. The hours requirement and the two-year cycle are unchanged, so keep logging Category 1 CME toward your current cycle.

Check your requirements by license type

Reporting rules, renewal cadence, and credit totals differ by state and by license type. We keep the details current in our state-by-state guides: