Dear Colleagues, A year ago today, The Joint Commission added NBPAS as a “Designated Equivalent Source Agency” to verify board certification.Press Release Despite this announcement we knew we had work to do to educate and inform hospitals that NBPAS meets national hospital accreditation standards, as well as payor standards (NCQA/URAC).  What happened after this announcement was not only surprising but deeply disappointing. Over the past year, ABMS has disseminated a self-described toolkit, which they state was “created specifically to address questions, concerns and misconceptions surrounding NBPAS and what ABMS believes are its false inferences that an NBPAS certificate is equivalent to ABMS certification.” To be clear, The Joint Commission granted the “Designated Equivalent Source Agency” designation, not NBPAS.  Furthermore, we founded NBPAS to be a different and improved pathway for lifelong learning.  NBPAS does not strive to be equivalent.  NBPAS strives to be better. NBPAS beli