The American Board of Internal Medicine

“Abim does not delegate broad authority to any committee.”

“Abim adopted new bylaws on june 4, 2019, that included the following changes: 1. The requirement that a majority of the directors serving at any time shall possess current clinical practice experience was increased to 75%. A majority of the directors then in office may waive this 75% requirement for a good cause and on a time-limited basis. 2. Once the chair's term of office ends, he or she shall leave the board, even if his or her term limit is not reached.”

“The form 990 is prepared by an independent accounting firm. The finance department provides all information and reviews the form 990 prior to board review. The form 990 is then made available to the entire governing body, via email, for comments and questions. Once all comments and questions have been addressed, the form 990 is approved. The cfo signs the form 990 and communicates to the board of directors that the form 990 has been filed.”

“A formal, written conflict of interest policy has been developed and is reviewed periodically by the conflict of interest committee, a sub-committee of the governance committee of the board of directors. It is posted and easy to locate on abim's website. All governance members must abide by both a financial and academic conflict of interest policy. Abim staff are governed by a conflict of interest policy in the employee handbook and executive staff are subject to annual disclosure of any potential conflicts. All governance and executive staff disclosures of relevant relationships are available on abim's website. Financial conflict of interest individuals who are appointed to serve on abim boards or committees are expected to have abim's mission as their primary interest when contributing to abim's work. A real or perceived conflict of interest may arise when, due to another interest that may compete with those of abim, an individual has the opportunity to influence abim work in ways that could lead to, or appear to lead to, personal or institutional gain, or advantage for another organization. The abim conflict of interest policy is intended to provide guidelines for identifying and managing conflicts that arise from competing interests. It is intended to maintain the integrity of abim's decision-making processes and, thereby, maintain the confidence of the profession and the public in abim's standards and judgments. The policy applies to members of the board of directors, the abim council, specialty boards, exam committees, medical knowledge self-assessment product committees, standard setting panels, and any other standing and ad hoc committees or task forces of abim that develop abim policies or products. Those in service to abim on these or subsequently created entities are referred to collectively as "members." the policy applies to public and inter-professional members as well as to physician members. Because the work of members in different groups varies considerably in focus, different types of management of relationships may be indicated for specific groups. The complete policy can be found at http://www.abim.org/about/governance/board-policies/financial-conflict-of-i terest.aspx. Academic conflict of interest abim recognizes that individuals who serve on its board of directors, council, specialty and subspecialty boards, and exam writing and medical knowledge self-assessment product committees are asked to serve the medical community in many ways. Indeed, in most circumstances, abim is well-served by the diverse academic activities of its members. Members must recognize, however, that some educational activities can create a real, potential or perceived conflict of interest relating to knowledge of questions on abim assessments. Members must follow the guidelines in the policy regarding educational activities during abim service and for a period of two years thereafter. It is the responsibility of each member to report potential and actual sources of personal academic conflicts of interest and to comply with the policies and guidelines described in the policy. Protecting the integrity of abim examinations and other assessments is absolutely vital to the successful work of abim. Involvement of those who contribute to abim examinations and assessments in educational programs could create the perception of unfair advantage to program participants. Specifically, those who develop abim examinations or medical knowledge self- assessment products or who influence abim policies must not participate in educational activities that are advertised as preparation for abim secure exams in their specialty or any other abim area of certification. Although members of specific exam committees generally do not have any direct knowledge about the content of other examinations offered by abim, and some members of the board of directors, the council and the specialty/subspecialty boards do not work directly on any examinations, the broade”

“Abim engages an external compensation vendor to conduct an organization-wide compensation review roughly every three years to assure competitive base and total compensation for all employees up through and including vice presidents. Each cycle, the vendor: * reviews all existing job descriptions/documentation; * speaks with key managers in each functional area; * researches and extracts pay survey data for selected benchmark job types; and, * analyzes several pay practice data sources including: view of commercial survey reports (economic research institute, salary.com, prm consulting); * review of 990s for non-profit organizations with similar sizes in health care; and * assessment of the pay practices of other non-profit and for-profit clients in the philadelphia labor market. Abim maintains salaries in line with designated ranges and competitive pay practices. In addition, compensation of our ceo is reviewed each year by the executive compensation committee (ecc), and the ecc's recommendation on ceo compensation needs to be approved by the board of directors. Other executive-level staff is set after recommendation by the ceo and then review and approval by the executive compensation committee. The ecc directly engages an independent consultant to provide data on salaries for comparable executive positions in comparable organizations, updated every two years, and this comparative data is used to set, review and approve all executive salaries. The executive compensation committee reports executive compensation annually to the full board of directors. The review and approval of ceo and executive-level staff compensation is documented in the minutes of the ecc.”

“Form 1023 was not required at the time of incorporation (1936).”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are available upon request.”

“The compensation reported for the following individuals within part vii was paid directly to their employer: * patricia m. Conolly - permanente medical group - $49,500 * debra l. Ness - national partnership for women & families - $13,500 * safwan bard - edumed - $7,000”

“Abim seeks to enhance the quality of health care by certifying internists and subspecialists who demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for excellent patient care. Since its founding in 1936 to answer a public call to establish more uniform standards for physicians, certification by abim has stood for the highest standard in internal medicine and its 20 subspecialties. Certification has meant that internists have demonstrated - to their peers and to the public - that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care. Abim is not a membership society, but a physician-led non-profit, independent evaluation organization. Research suggests board certification is associated with better care. Our accountability is both to the profession of medicine and to the public. Abim's governance structure consists of more than 350 members on more than 50 boards and committees and includes physicians, allied professionals and public members. Abim offers certification in 20 disciplines - representing the breadth and depth of internal medicine.”