Lena J. Weiner | May 29, 2015
A campaign to remove barriers preventing physicians from practicing across state lines and promising to pave the way for further expansion of telemedicine continues to gain participants.
The tally of states at the vanguard of a movement that promises to alleviate physician shortages now stands at eight.
Alabama and Minnesota became the seventh and eighth states to enact the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact on this month, triggering the formation of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission. The commission aims to administer a streamlined process for physicians seeking to obtain licensure in multiple states. Greater license portability is expected to be a boon to the practice of telemedicine.
“We’re hoping to have a few more before the end of the legislative year,” says Lisa Robin, chief advocacy officer at the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), speaking by phone in the organization’s Washington, D.C. office.
>>>States That Have Enacted the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact
The commission will meet later this year to discuss further administration of the compact. The body will consist of two voting members from each state represented. Physicians, executives and members of the public appointed to medical boards are all eligible to serve as members.
Interstate Medical Licensure Could Ease Physician Shortages
The expansion of the compact is the result of two and a half years of work between various state medical boards. One hurdle: “We had to show some people that the compact was not doing away with individual state licensure or going to diminish the ability of states to enforce their own laws,” Robin says.
Several states have expedited the interstate licensing process for physicians, but the lack of a standardized approach is an obstacle to physicians wishing to practice telemedicine across state lines, and to provider organizations seeking to staff telemedicine programs.
Gaining Ground
In January 2013, FSMB organized a conference for state medical boards from around the country to examine more efficient methods and policies for licensure of practicing physicians and began creating the first drafts of what would become the compact. Wyoming was the first state to join the compact. Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia followed. Legislation is pending in Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
“For physicians and their employers that have physicians practicing in multiple states, this will certainly ease administrative activities around getting licensed in those states,” says Robin. Tithe compact allows state medical boards to streamline the licensing process and will allow participating state legislators, law enforcement and licensing boards to share information, as well as function as a mechanism physicians can use to distribute their information to states they wish to practice in.
The Interstate Medical Licensing Compact has support from multiple professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Opposition comes chiefly from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which holds that the compact would:
• “Usurp aspects of state sovereignty in medical licensure”
• “Create a whole new level of bureaucracy that will add substantially to the cost of medical care”
• “Force physicians participating in the compact to engage in costly, time-devouring proprietary programs with no proven benefit to patient care…”
Adjunct Process
“[The compact] will not replace the traditional pathway for getting a license, it’s just an adjunct, if you will,” Robin says. Physicians will have full licenses in each state they practice in, but the same standards for initial licensure will continue to be in place, and states will be allowed to maintain their own laws.
Licensure in each state is not automatic—physicians will have to apply for licensure in each state individually, and would be required to respect the rules and regulations of each state.
Interstate Medical Licensure Effort Advances
“One thing that makes this advantageous is that it allows boards to share information that they are perhaps barred from sharing now,” says Robin, such as complaints lodged by patients. “The states, while acting in compact, would be able to share that information… it would prevent someone who has complaints against them or is under investigation in one state to practice in other states where they might be licensed.”
Reporting of public actions and complaints against physicians will be mandatory if the information is requested by the board of a fellow compact state.
The compact also allows states to perform joint investigations and grants authority to subpoena information across state boundaries. And it allows state medical boards to ensure that disciplinary actions are recognized and responded to across state lines. “There are regulatory advantages for state boards as well,” Robin says, adding that she hopes the compact will improve patient safety.
Robin expects Nevada or Illinois to be the next state to join the compact. “I think we’ll see a total of ten to twelve states join in this next year.”
Source: Health Leaders Media