About one mile from our office sits the historic Julian Price mansion.
This is what it looks like today.
Nice, right?
The prior owner fell onto hard times. The bank foreclosed on the property. And it took more than five years to evict the delinquent owner.
The prior owner, Sandra Cowart, was featured on the television show Hoarders. Below are some pics of what the interior of the house looked like while she still lived there.
Stuff was never thrown away, nor was it organized.
Makes the average teenager’s bedroom look pristine.
Anyway, the mansion has been restored by its new owners to its prior splendor.
Now for the case against hoarding medical licenses.
Some physicians hold medical licenses in all states and territories. They are actually using these licenses, likely for telemedicine. That makes sense.
Some physicians keep many medical licenses to be able to serve in a new locale, on a moment’s notice. For example, if they work locums. That also makes sense, but you likely don’t need scores of such licenses, since one will probably never move even temporarily to most of these places.
And another set consists of physicians who have moved around, with no intention of moving back, but hang on to old licenses out of habit. Or based on the thought they might move back.
I still have books from college in storage. Because I might one day go back and read them. Right.
Hanging on to old, unused medical licenses can create risk. For the licenses you do use.
If you are disciplined by a Medical Board in one jurisdiction, you can be exposed to reciprocal discipline in another jurisdiction. Even if the underlying offense in the original disciplining jurisdiction is not actionable where you practice. The mere fact you were disciplined elsewhere puts the license you use every day at risk.
What makes this maddening is that it’s possible to never set foot in one state, never care for a patient in that state, and still be exposed to discipline.
For example.
The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) makes it easy to apply for multiple medical licenses through a common pathway. The individual states still retain authority over the requirements for licensure. But the process is simpler than applying de novo to each state individually.
Often the states will ask for completion of a secondary application. They want to ask additional questions not in the IMLC application.
What if you fail to respond? What if you just ignore filling out the secondary application, say, for example, a job offer falls though? Well, there’s a statute for that in at least one state.
“Failure to complete and return the renewal information form will constitute a violation of this provision, and may result in disciplinary action pursuant to xxx or (xxxi), or other applicable provisions of the act.”
“and may result in disciplinary action.”
If disciplinary action is implemented, it will be reported as an adverse action to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).
And the licensing board will complete this question in its NPDB report with the answer “No.”:
Is the adverse action specified in this report based on the subject’s professional competence or conduct, which adversely affected, or could have adversely affected, the health or welfare of patient(s)?
So, no issue with professional competence or conduct which affected or could have affected the health or welfare of a patient.
Nonetheless, still a disciplinary action.
Can this affect your other IMLC licenses?
Yes.
Once you have a disciplinary action by a licensing board, you will not be able to renew any future licenses through IMLC. You’ll have to renew each state one by one. Outside of IMLC.
Section 7 IMLC Renewal and Continued Participation states:
- A physician seeking to renew an expedited license granted in a member state shall complete a renewal process with the Interstate Commission if the physician:
- Maintains a full and unrestricted license in a state of principal license;
- Has not been convicted, received adjudication, deferred adjudication, community supervision, or deferred disposition for any offense by a court of appropriate jurisdiction;
- Has not had a license authorizing the practice of medicine subject to discipline by a licensing agency in any state, federal, or foreign jurisdiction, excluding any action related to non-payment of fees related to a license; and
- Has not had a controlled substance license or permit suspended or revoked by a state or the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
But wait, there’s more. Some states require self-reporting of this out-of-state disciplinary action within 10-30 days.
New Jersey:
45:9-19.16 Physicians, report out-of-State disciplinary, criminal actions; investigation, determination.
1. a. A physician licensed by the State Board of Medical Examiners, or a physician who is an applicant for a license from the State Board of Medical Examiners, shall notify the board within 10 days of:
(1) any action taken against the physician’s medical license by any other state licensing board or any action affecting the physician’s privileges to practice medicine by any out-of-State hospital, health care facility, health maintenance organization or other employer;
Texas:
Rule §162.2 Profile Updates
(b) Mandatory Updates shall be reported by a physician within 10 business days of the event, including:
(7) any disciplinary action described in §§154.006(b)(12)1 and (13) of the Act;
§§154.006(b)(12) a description of any disciplinary action against the physician by a medical licensing board of another state
Florida:
458.331 Grounds for disciplinary action; action by the board and department.
(1) The following acts constitute grounds for denial of a license or disciplinary action, as specified in s. 456.072(2):…
….
(kk) Failing to report to the board, in writing, within 30 days if action as defined in paragraph (b) has been taken against one’s license to practice medicine in another state, territory, or country.
My point:
Hang on to those medical licenses you need and use. Retire the rest.
No need to hoard.
What do you think?
