Credentialing Internal Medicine Physicians to Expand Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive Access

Contraceptive care is a fundamental clinical service and is particularly important for medically complex patients who seek this care from their PCP (4). With training, IM physicians can become qualified to place, manage, and remove LARCs. Unfortunately, we observed wide variations in credentialing requirements for IM physicians who seek to offer LARC care; thus, PCPs face barriers to LARC provision in many communities (3). These barriers are unnecessary given the safety of LARC procedures, especially when compared with that of typical IM core privileges (1, 7, 8). Credentialing decisions should be informed by procedure type and prior experience. Given the national crisis of reproductive health care after the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, there is an urgent need to streamline credentialing and increase provision of contraceptive services by IMphysicians.