If you are a physician licensed in Texas and your medical license is set to renew, big changes are here. Beyond staying on top of your 48-hour biennial Continuing Medical Education (CME) requirements, Texas physicians must now adapt to a major statewide operational shift: required statutory reporting for license renewal.
The Texas Medical Board (TMB) has partnered with Propelus, using its CE Broker™ solution to support licensees in meeting the state’s statutory continuing education reporting requirements. CE Broker is Propelus’s digital continuing education compliance platform, and the new law took effect September 1, 2026.
What CME do you need for your renewal?
According to the Texas Medical Board (TMB), all licensed physicians (MDs and DOs) must complete 48 hours of CME every two-year registration period to maintain an active license. To satisfy state requirements, your total hours must be split between formal and informal education, along with specific subject-matter requirements:
General hour breakdown (every biennial cycle)
- At least 24 Formal Hours (Category 1/1A): Must be accredited by recognized organizations such as the ACCME (AMA PRA Category 1™), AOA (Category 1-A), AAFP, or the Texas Medical Association (TMA).
- Up to 24 Informal Hours: Self-study, hospital grand rounds without formal designation, clinical journal reading, or medical research/preparation time.
Mandatory subject areas (included within formal hours)
- Medical Ethics / Professional Responsibility: Minimum 2 hours. Must explicitly cover topics like risk management, ethics, or related topics.
- Pain Management & Opioid Prescribing: Minimum 2 hours. Required on 1st and 2nd renewals and every 8 years thereafter for physicians providing direct patient care, regardless of DEA status. All Physician licensees are assumed to engage in direct patient care by default; if you do not, an exemption is available in your CE Broker account to remove the requirement. (The same exemption applies to Human Trafficking Prevention.)
- Human Trafficking Prevention: No minimum hour requirement. The course must be HHSC approved, and the hours count towards your ethics requirement. Required on 1st renewal, and once every 3rd renewal cycle/6 years thereafter for physicians providing direct patient care. All Physician licensees are assumed to engage in direct patient care by default; if you do not, an exemption is available in your CE Broker account to remove the requirement. (The same exemption applies to Pain Management & Opioid Prescribing.)
Upcoming requirements
- Forensic Evidence Collection: Minimum 2 hours. Starting with renewals on or after February 2027, Forensic Evidence Collection is required for physicians who perform forensic examinations on sexual assault survivors or treat victims in emergency department settings. It will appear as a requirement by default and can be removed by reporting an exemption in your CE Broker account. The Board will recognize any course found acceptable to the Governor’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Task Force. The course may be formal or informal, as determined by the course provider.
- Life of the Mother Act CE: One-time requirement. Applicable to Physicians with medical specialties including family medicine; emergency medicine; critical care medicine-OBgyn; maternal-fetal medicine; and obstetrics/gynecology, regardless of whether the physician currently provides obstetrical care. It’s a new requirement for obtaining a medical license, and must be completed by existing licensees with an applicable specialty. Currently, the only recognized course is offered by the board and available on their website. (The requirement is not currently listed in CE Broker. The board’s course is considered formal credit and can be entered as Ethics.)
- Nutrition and Metabolic Health: Physicians and Physician Assistants. More information will be provided once the rules are finalized, including details regarding formal or informal credit.
New statutory requirement: CE Broker tracking required starting September 1, 2026
The biggest update affecting Texas healthcare practitioners is the Texas Medical Board’s mandatory CE tracking requirement taking effect September 1, 2026.
Under Texas law, SB 912, all TMB-licensed physicians renewing on or after September 1, 2026, must have their CME compliance verified through CE Broker. If your completed CME coursework cannot be verified in the CE Broker system at the time of your renewal, your license renewal application cannot proceed.
What that means for 2026 (and in the future)
Even if your license expires late in the year, you should activate and verify your CE Broker account immediately. Your account setup ensures that educational providers reporting on your behalf will seamlessly sync with your official transcript, eliminating last-minute compliance audits or renewal delays. It also gives you the opportunity to validate what is being reported to your board.
The benefits of using CE Broker for CME requirements
As the official continuing education compliance platform adopted by the Texas Medical Board, CE Broker provides a centralized, secure transcript where your completed requirements are tracked in real time.
- Free account: All Texas licensees can activate a Free Basic Account to satisfy the TMB mandate.
- Automatic reporting & easy uploads: Many accredited providers report course completions directly to CE Broker. If you complete a course elsewhere, simply log into your CE Broker account and click Report CE to upload your certificate.
- Instant compliance status: Once all formal hours, informal credits, and mandatory subject requirements are logged, your dashboard will update to a “Complete” status with a green check mark.
- Optional premium plans: For enhanced tracking power, upgrade to a Premium Account for a dynamic compliance transcript, or a Pro+ Account to unlock access to a library of free CME courses.
Steps to meet your CME and renewal requirements
- Activate and verify your free CE Broker account: Go to cebroker.com to set up your account.
- Review your current expiration date: Log in to your MyTMB account to confirm your biennial registration cycle.
- Review your transcript: View your personalized compliance transcript in CE Broker to identify missing formal hours or mandatory subject categories (e.g., Opioid or Ethics hours).
- Complete required CME: Use the CE Broker Course Search to find TMB-compliant Category 1 courses.
- Report remaining credits: Log completed credits not automatically reported by clicking Report CE in your account dashboard.
- Finalize Renewal with TMB: Once your CE Broker transcript reads Complete, proceed to the Texas Medical Board portal to submit your renewal application and fees.
Start early for peace of mind
Whether your license expires this month or later in 2026, getting your CME completed and verified in CE Broker early supports a frictionless renewal process. Avoid the stress of last-minute documentation audits, activate your account today and stay ahead of TMB’s digital tracking transition.
For the most up-to-date information about your CME requirements, visit the Texas Medical Board page.