All Branch Topic (ABT) Medical license

[eagle03]

I hear Virginia and Nebraska are ideal for permanent medical licenses for military (cost, not as tedious as other states paperwork wise), but if you are active, is Texas' medical license "free"?

Texas Medical Board

www.tmb.state.tx.us

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[SirGecko]

I hear the army has decided to start making people pay for Nebraska medical licenses now and aren’t letting people use the free one, at least at some MTFs. So there is that.

 

[Serenity89]

DHA policy is that you cant have a free license as military, you still have to pay. Air Force for sure. Not sure other branches.

 

[backrow]

For Navy: You can have a “free” license as long as it is exactly the same as the paid license. Unfortunately this means that all of the free licenses are out because they all have some sort of difference...for example Nebraska waives the CME requirements (or something like that) and the instruction says it can’t have a waiver of requirements. Other States put practice limitations (eg California says you can’t practice in California with the military license).

So, the reality is that you can’t use them in the Navy as your primary license.



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[HighPriest]

Texas has a military only license (at least they did three years ago). You can only use it to see Tricare in a military position, which for most people is what they want. I would caution you, however: the Texas state board is a pretty fascist organization relative to any of the others I dealt with during my moonlighting (6 states total). Texas was the worst. (I never tried for CA) and you have to do a ton of extra $#!t just to get a license. Like a jurisprudence exam. Which is a PITA, especially if you don’t practice in Texas because it’s mostly nonsense that is isolated to Texas.
personally, I would rather just pay a small fee for four years than deal with the Texas board.

 

[grotto]

Virginia is the best I’ve come across. $300 every 3 years, no nonsense, easy online renewal. I’ve heard PA and OH aren’t bad but don’t have much experience. MD is easy but $$$.

 

[HighPriest]

I've had:
Indiana (not super pricey, like $250 every 2 years) they don't require CME and it's really easy to get.

Kansas ($300/year if I recall....), not hard to get, but their licensing department is a PITA. They audit very frequently and if they find a hair out of place they'll be all over you. They have some kind of military version of their license as well, but I would get an IN license 10/10 before Kansas. I got caught up in that because (and I kid you not) I had a Kansas license and I moved out of state (PCS) and I failed to change my Kansas state license address to my new out-of-state address. So they flagged me and made all kinds of threats. So I changed the address. Then they called me again and said that I wasn't in line because you have to have an out-of-state Kansas license, not an in-state Kansas license, if you live out of state (would have been nice if they had just mentioned that during our first conversation). So I asked if I could just cancel the license and they said no. You can't. You have to write a formal letter rescinding your license, and then if you ever apply again you have to apply for a brand new license. Just....dumb bureaucracy for absolutely no reason.

North Dakota - Comphealth got me this license and I only had it for a very short time. I never spoke with the board, and they never contacted me. It was very nice, but I don't know much about it.

Arizona - Comphealth got me that one as well. Same thing, never heard from the board and they never contacted me. Didn't require any more documentation than average.

Washington - $650-ish every renewal period, which is 4 years. However, the first time you license you have to renew again in 2 years because &%^ you, that's why. 200 CME every 4 years, which isn't unusual but it is very easy to become complacent and then have to scramble. The board is fairly fascist. If anyone even suggests to them that you might be shady, no matter how unrealistic, no matter how much or little proof the accuser has, they send out an e-mail to every other provider in the state saying that you're a bad boy and that you should be ashamed. Then, if no fault is found, they send out another e-mail stating that everything is resolved. But no more information than that. It's offensive, and assumes guilt. Fortunately I have never ended up on one of those lists.

Texas - I mentioned that above. Don't get a Texas license unless you plan on working as a civilian in Texas. Not at all worth it.

 

[JCJ_Surgery]

Also think about frequency of renewal. Arkansas (where I’m at) is a pretty reasonable board, and quite progressive re: physician health issues. But renewal is $200 every year, and just having to do it every year gets old - and if you‘re not here and forget to renew without talking to the Board first, you end up as a “non-renewal” on the licensee public actions list (you don’t want that).

So if you can find a state with multi-year license duration, that’s good. But probably more important than cost or duration of license is reputation of the Board. All Medical Boards exist to protect the public by ensuring that physicians are properly qualified and healthy to practice, but some are reasonable and (as noted above) some are more like middle age inquisitions. They can reach out and touch you, in an unwanted way, if you have an issue even in your military or residency practice outside the state where you are licensed - and all of the boards talk to each other in an attempt to keep bad docs from hopping state to state. So do your homework beyond this message board (which does seem to give good advice) before you decide.

FYI if you need a DEA number for your military practice (including military residency), since you are a government employee you can get one for free (after your license) limited to government practice only. It will have that restriction on the certificate, but that’s the only restriction. If you moonlight at a non-government venue, you’ll need to shell out the $ for a regular one.

 

[HighPriest]

Definitely get the federal DEA number. A lot of moonlighting companies will pay for another one for you if you go through them. Just make sure you cancel the federal DEA when you get out of the military, or it will just hang around indefinitely. That made me nervous. Easy to cancel, however.

100% agree on try to find out which states have fascist boards.

 

[militaryPHYS]

For Navy: You can have a “free” license as long as it is exactly the same as the paid license. Unfortunately this means that all of the free licenses are out because they all have some sort of difference...for example Nebraska waives the CME requirements (or something like that) and the instruction says it can’t have a waiver of requirements. Other States put practice limitations (eg California says you can’t practice in California with the military license).

So should I not be checking the military box in the CA Breeze application? Will this put restrictions on me? I don't see anything to say that it will. There is no box for "free" license but does ask if applicant is active duty military. Payment page is asking for 1200+ bucks so it obviously isn't free.

I am applying for CA license due to upcoming FTOS fellowship in CA.

 

[backrow]

So should I not be checking the military box in the CA Breeze application? Will this put restrictions on me? I don't see anything to say that it will. There is no box for "free" license but does ask if applicant is active duty military. Payment page is asking for 1200+ bucks so it obviously isn't free.

I am applying for CA license due to upcoming FTOS fellowship in CA.

You won’t be able to have a military licensee for most California fellowships if the fellowship is asking for you to have one. If you are going FTOS then technically you don’t need a CA license, but good luck getting that approved by your university location.

The military license in CA will come with a clause that says “no private practice” and likely won’t be useful for your university either. Now, once you are done with fellowship and if you have another State license, then you can put your CA license as the military one which is, I believe, free to renew. Your other license will be unrestricted meeting the requirements of the Navy and you can keep your CA license up for minimal cost.


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[DrMetal]

So should I not be checking the military box in the CA Breeze application? Will this put restrictions on me? I don't see anything to say that it will. There is no box for "free" license but does ask if applicant is active duty military. Payment page is asking for 1200+ bucks so it obviously isn't free.

I am applying for CA license due to upcoming FTOS fellowship in CA.

if you're paying the full price, you're probably getting the full unrestricted license.

 

[Gastrapathy]

@backrow why wouldn’t he need a CA license for FTOS fellowship in CA?

 

[militaryPHYS]

Everything on the application says "Physician's and Surgeon's - Initial Application". Nothing noted about restricted, free or military license. I didn't even see that option on their website when starting the application so maybe they nixed the free license all together? Also wondering why technically I don't need a CA license for CA FTOS

 

[dwb8p]

It's state and program dependent. Everyone I know who has done a FTOS fellowship in California (n=5) has been required to obtain a CA license, even for ACGME-accredited programs. Whereas I am currently finishing up a FTOS fellowship in a different state and was not required to obtain a license for that state, because I'm covered under an institutional training license. Of course, I do maintain a Nebraska license to keep the military happy.

 

[backrow]

@backrow why wouldn’t he need a CA license for FTOS fellowship in CA?

In FTOS one is still technically working for the government and at the governments behest and direction. (At least that’s how it was explained to me from the BUMED GME office back in the day). Unfortunately the civilian GME offices will still make you get one which I believe has to do with billing and not the legality of being able to practice.


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[Gastrapathy]

I don’t see how you can get credentialed without a valid state license. It sounds like the sort of thing the GME office would say so that they didn’t have to pay for it or something but it doesn’t really make sense.

 

[Cooperd0g]

I don’t see how you can get credentialed without a valid state license. It sounds like the sort of thing the GME office would say so that they didn’t have to pay for it or something but it doesn’t really make sense.

This sounds like the appropriate appreciation and observation for true bureaucracy. Sadly.

 

[GreenHousePub]

if you're paying the full price, you're probably getting the full unrestricted license.

They require full price then you have to send in documentation for military status anytime prior to your renewal date. So you'll get a full license up until you decide to submit that paperwork for the renewal. Your name in Breeze won't show secondary status as military until the paperwork is approved.