ASCP Certification Renewal: A Comprehensive Guide for Essentials

The ASCP certification renewal essentials are CMP points/CE credits that you need to earn during the three years before your ASCP credential expiration.

You can get your CMP points by:

• Participating in ASCP online education courses
• Serving the ASCP communities
• Attending the ASCP annual meeting
• Authoring in ASCP publications
• You can also get CE credits from non-ASCP activities ( From other CE providers)

On January 1, 2004, The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Certification (BOC) developed CMP (Certification Maintenance Program) for all its certifications.

This program presents you with a lot of chances to learn new skills that improve your professional competence.

The ASCP renewal process is for lifelong and is repeated every three years.

To update your credential, you have to satisfy some ASCP certification renewal prerequisites to send a declaration for your CMP.

In this article, we will present detailed information about the ASCP certification renewal essentials and also explain how and where you can earn your CE credits to make CMP successful.

ASCP Certification Renewal

Once you achieve your ASCP certification, it will expire after three years of getting it.

To update your certification, the board established a CMP (Credential Maintenance Program).

The ASCP certification renewal is also an ASCP Credential Maintenance Program.

After fulfilling your ASCP certification renewal essentials (continuing education condition), you will be able to submit a CMP declaration.

Make sure to send your CMP declaration at least three months prior to your certificate expiration date, so you can get time for processing.

$95 is the CMP application fee and it is the same for all certifications.

But, you have to pay $125 (application fee pulse expired certificate), in case you fail to send the declaration on time and your certificate has expired.

If you have multiple certifications with the same expiration date or within three months of each other, you will get a $15 reduced fee offer.

The ASCP certification cycle is a vital process for a lab professional’s career because you will learn all that you need to get a top seat among peers and a better job with a higher salary.

• Introduce you to the latest technologies
• Keep you up-to-date with the field
• Make you a highly sought-after professional
• To earn your CMP point, you have to participate in ASCP live events that raise your network circle.

CMP Requirements

To fulfill your ASCP certification renewal essentials, you have to get some points or CE credits.

These credits are specific for each credential.

You have to earn this continuing credit in your area of specialty, lab and patient safety, medical ethics, and lab-related work.

For many certifications, you have to earn 36 points, and for a few, 9 points.

Distribution of 36 Point

To send a declaration for MLS ASCP, you have to earn 36 points.

• 2 points: Blood banking, chemistry , hematology and microbiology
• 1 point: Patient & lab safety (i.e., quality control and quality insurance)
• 1 point: Medical ethics (e.g., sexual harassment, confidentiality, compliance, DEI, HIPAA, (inclusion, equity, and diversity).
• 26 points: Area of lab specialty, education, management, or other lab work

Distribution of 9 Points

If you are looking to renew your MLA ASCP (Medical Lab Assistant) credential, you have to earn 9 points.

• 2 points: Area of your specialty
• 1 point: Lab and patient safety
• 1 point: Medical ethics
• 5 points: lab specialty, molecular diagnostics, education, management, etc.

The ASCP Renewal Process

To complete your CMP process successfully, you must follow the below instructions.

• Login to your ASCP account
• Explore the “My Education” section and click on “Check Progress” to check your credential’s current status.
• Your ASCP credits automatically enter your ASCP transcript but for non-ASCP credits, you have to insert them manually.
• Once you meet all your ASCP certification renewal essentials, you will get an email notification to send a declaration to BOC for review.
• Make sure to send your declaration three months before your credential expiration date, so you can get time for processing.
• At the time of the audit, try to get all supportive documentation or original certificates of attendance
• Once you complete your CMP process, you will get a three-year renewal notification for the upcoming three years.

How to Manage and Track Your CE Points

The ASCP BOC presents a tool “MY Account Dashboard” to make the CMP process easy for you.

By utilizing this tool, you can check your credential status and track and record your ASCP and non-ASCP credits.

Process to check your ASCP credential status

• Login to the ASCP account
• Expose the section “Check Progress” under “My Education.”
• Click on Track Progress” and choose your credential from the drop-down menu
• Here you can see your credential expiration date with the current status

Process to Track Your ASCP Credits

• Log into your personal ASCP BOC account
• Explore the “Check Progress” option in the “My Education” part
• Here, you can see your ASCP credits
• You should determine the area in which you need to get the continuing education credits

Process to Track Non-ASCP Credit

• Open your ASCP account
• Under “My Education” explore the section “Check Progress.”
• Find the option “CMP Credits and Progress” and enter Non-ASCP credits in the tab to add your credits manually
• Enter all required information, including title, activity type, date, etc for each credit.
• Utilize the drop-down menu to enter the CE credits for specific topics

Earning CE Credit for ASCP Renewal

To overcome your ASCP certification renewal essentials, you can utilize ASCP and non-ASCP activities to earn CE credits.

CE Credits from ASCP

ASCP offers a wide variety of opportunities to meet your certification renewal requirements.

You can get your CE credits by getting education products from ASCP, like as:

ASCP Case Report

• Self-study tools navigate the large area of clinical and anatomic pathology
• Deliver 2.0 CME/CMLE credits per exercise

Continuing Education (CE) Packages

• You will get one-year Unlimited CE Packages (must be completed in one year) and Multiple Credit Online CE Packages (many packages that offer your credit according to your needs).

ASCP LabQ

• Cover 18-real life case studies and work for lab technologists
• You will get 2 credits per exercise after finishing the post-test
• 2 credits are specific to lab safety and patient.

ASCP Patient Safety

• Packed with 8 modules on patent safety, each module offers one continuing education credit.
• Modules 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8 are specifically designed to offer credits for medical ethics

Other Activities to Get Credits

• You must join the ASCP communities, like the Social Media Team, BOC Exam Committees, etc to earn credits
• Make sure to join the ASCP annual meeting
• Join ASCP publications, including Critical Value, American Journal Clinical Pathology, etc, for authoring that offers you free CE credit in return
• Serve ASCP communities to participate in ASCP programs, including Career Ambassador 2.0, Choosely Wisely + ASCP, ASCP Policy Efforts, etc.

CE Credits from Non-ASCP CE Providers

Here is the list of non-ASCP CE providers that offer you continuing education credits based on your demands.

• CAP—College of American Pathologists
• ASM—American Society of Microbiology
• AMA—American Medical Association
• AABB
• ASFA—American Society for Apheresis
• CMEA—Continuing Medical Education Association
• CLMA—Clinical Laboratory Management Association
• ASC—American Society of Cytopathology
• AGT—Association of Genetic Technologists

Navigating the Online CMP Declaration

To make your CMP process successful, you should send your CMP declaration on time.

When to Send CMP Declaration:

The ASCP BOC reminds you by email about your CMP many times within a three-years.

But, it is your own responsibility to track your CMP and send the declaration on time.

• Once you meet all your ASCP certification renewal essentials, you can send your CMP declaration with a fee.
• It is necessary that you send your completed declaration one month before to end date of your certification.
• If you send a declaration with an expired certification, you have to pay an additional fee

Staying Ahead: Planning for Your Next Declaration

• To keep a balance between your renewal process and practice, you must use actionable strategies to take both side by side.
• Set reminders to submit your CE credits at the right time
• Use the ASCP tools to track your certification’s current status
• Determines the area in which you need to get the credits
• Participate in specific programs that offer you credits that  you need
• Book the ASCP annual meeting to maximize the CMP points
• Become an Ascp member, which increases your chances of meeting ASCP certification renewal essentials.

Final Verdict for ASCP Certification Renewal Essentials

The CMP is a vital process to stay with ASCP certification and you have to meet ASCP certification renewal essentials under all conditions.

You cannot work with an expired certification, so make sure to do your renewal process before your certification end date.

Try to utilize all the resources that the board determines to earn continuing education credits.

Submit your declaration on time to protect yourself from extra fees.

Establish a proper plan to earn and allocate your credits within three years to maintain a balance between practice and CMP.

FAQs for ASCP Certification Renewal Essentials