That's the question raised in this article in AM News, citing the recent disgrace caused by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' chief medical officer, Sean R. Tunis, MD, who is accused of lying about his CME credits.
I don't think stepping monitoring to make sure those seats actually were in the seats is the answer to reining in those who would cheat, scam, lie, etc.--those who will game one system will inevitably find a way to game a new one.
Since the whole point of CME isn't that they log the hours, but that physicians learn things they can use to better treat patients, this just to me seems like one more loud scream for outcomes measurement. If they say they went to a CME course on X topic, test 'em to see what they learned. Then find out if they're using it. This makes a whole lot more sense to me than having the CME police come in to check to see if your forms are legit--do we really care? I don't. What I care about is that they learned something. Even better, they learned something they can use--and then they use it.
