International medical graduates (IMGs) who choose to practice in Missouri make a good choice. You have a tremendous amount to gain with your licensure. However, the ECFMG, USMLE, and Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts hold IMGs strictly accountable for their requirements. If you don't meet those requirements in the manner that these organizations require, you can face delays, denials, and even misconduct allegations. If you face Missouri IMG licensing issues, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best outcome. Our attorneys are available in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, Independence, Lee's Summit, O'Fallon, St. Joseph, St. Charles, Blue Springs, St. Peters, Florissant, Joplin, Chesterfield, and every other Missouri city or town. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the strategic and effective representation of our highly qualified attorneys.
The Benefits of Missouri IMG Licensure
Every international medical graduate has their own reasons for choosing a state in which to pursue licensure. But some of those reasons IMGs share in common. Missouri is a great place for medical practice because of its large and well-equipped hospitals. The largest of those hospitals include Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Mercy Hospital Springfield, Mercy Hospital St. Louis, Mercy Hospital South, Cox Medical Centers South Hospital, Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, and SSM Health DePaul Hospital-St Louis. Missouri offers other advantages for IMGs considering which state to license. Those advantages include a healthy economy, large population centers, a beautiful natural environment, a temperate climate, a strong education system, and abundant arts and entertainment. We can help you preserve those anticipated benefits by addressing strategically and effectively your ECFMG, USMLE, and Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts issues.
The Impact of Missouri IMG Licensing Issues
Consider seriously the prospect that your ECFMG, USMLE, and Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts issues could preclude your Missouri medical licensure. Delays in your licensure, while you address your issues, could alone affect your job plans and other transition issues. However, failing to obtain a license at all would mean losing your opportunity to practice medicine in Missouri. If you don't gain a Missouri license, you could also lose your opportunity to gain a license elsewhere, depending on the grounds for your Missouri license denial. Losing your opportunity for a U.S. state medical license could, depending on your circumstances, mean losing all practical opportunities to practice medicine, in which case you'd lose the value of your international medical education. You could lose all financial, professional, and personal returns on your enormous investment.
Missouri IMG Licensing Requirements
Your Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts license requires that you meet the requirements of the Board of Registration and two other entities, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The Board of Registration focuses on your character and overall fitness as a public protection issue. The ECFMG focuses on certifying your international medical education. The USMLE focuses on assessing your medical knowledge and skills. Each organization has a different role and different requirements to fulfill that role. Consider the following summary of those requirements.
Missouri Board of Registration IMG Licensing Requirements
Missouri's Medical Practice Act Section 334.01 requires anyone practicing medicine in the state to obtain a Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts license. Section 334.031 of the Act lists the licensure requirements. Those requirements include good moral character, graduation from an approved medical school, and passage of an approved medical examination. ECFMG certification of your approved international medical school in the World Directory of Medical Schools satisfies the educational requirements. ECFMG Fifth Pathway joint international and domestic medical school degree also satisfies the education requirement. Section 334.035 adds that the Board of Registration may set graduate education (residency) requirements by rule. Board of Registration Rule 20 CSR 2150-2.004 requires IMGs who have not obtained specialty board certification to have three years of approved residency training, much more than the one-year required of graduates of U.S. medical schools. Let us help you meet the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts requirements if you face a dispute over your Board credentials.
ECFMG Requirements for Missouri IMGs
The Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts also requires, in its Rule 20 CSR 2150-2.060, that international medical graduates obtain ECFMG certification for their international medical education. As just shown above, ECFMG certification proves to the Board of Registration that your international medical school met worldwide medical standards, sufficient for licensure in Missouri and many other U.S. states. However, ECFMG certification requires much more than simply naming your approved school. You must create an online portfolio in ECFMG's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) system to which to have your transcript and other documentation uploaded. That other documentation includes evidence of your U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status. ECFMG will help you qualify for an immigrant visa if necessary. ECFMG, though, requires that your submissions be accurate and not misleading and that your documentation bears the authenticating marks ECFMG requires. Otherwise, ECFMG may deny certification. Let us help with your ECFMG requirements issues.
USMLE Requirements for Missouri IMGs
Missouri Board of Registration for the Hearing Arts Rule 20 CSR 2150-2.001 defines the acceptable medical examination to meet that statutory examination requirement as the USMLE Step exams. You must qualify for, take, and pass the USMLE Step 3 exam for your Missouri medical license. The USMLE requires IMGs to show ECFMG certification to sit for the Step 3 exam. Once you obtain ECFMG certification, you still need to apply with the USMLE for an examination date. Misrepresentations in your USMLE application can lead to the organization's refusal to allow you to sit for the exam. To receive a validated passing USMLE Step 3 exam score, you must also comply with all USMLE exam rules stated in its Bulletin of Information. Those rules include respecting the confidentiality of exam questions, not bringing unauthorized materials or devices into the exam room, not using impostors or getting answers from another examinee, and obeying proctor and test center instructions. Let us help if you face issues meeting USMLE requirements.
Missouri IMG Issues
Fair or not, as an international medical graduate, you face significantly greater challenges obtaining a Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts medical license than graduates of U.S. medical schools face. Your problems, pitfalls, and issues can arise out of your dealings with any one or all of the ECFMG, USMLE, and Board of Registration. U.S. medical school graduates do not face ECFMG certification issues. An ECFMG certification issue automatically becomes a USMLE issue and a Board of Registration issue. Following are some of the common issues IMGs face with each organization and how we may be able to help.
Missouri Board of Registration IMG Issues
Your first potential issue with the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts is that you have ECFMG or USMLE issues. Of course, you must resolve those issues with those organizations. However, you may also have to communicate promptly, clearly, and convincingly with the Board of Registration, showing the Board that you are working diligently to resolve your ECFMG and USMLE issues. Otherwise, the Board may reject your application and close your file. We can help you show the Board our diligent efforts at addressing your ECFMG and USMLE issues so that the Board continues to maintain your application rather than rejecting and closing it.
Your direct issues with the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts are likely to have to do with the Board's good character requirement. Character issues can arise in many ways. Criminal convictions, especially felony convictions, convictions related to drugs, and convictions implicating moral turpitude, are more likely to disqualify you for licensure. We may be able to show that you did not suffer the suspected conviction, that the court reversed your conviction, that the conviction was not material to your fitness for medical practice, or that sufficient time has passed for your rehabilitation. Substance abuse, mental health issues, physical disabilities, and domestic violence allegations are other examples of potentially disqualifying character and fitness issues. Let us help you put on your best case that you are fit for Missouri medical practice, having put any character or fitness issues behind you.
You face another potential issue in the representations you make and the documentation you supply to the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts in support of your medical license application. If your statements are false or misleading, your documents appear altered or fabricated, or your documents and statements contradict one another, suggesting misrepresentations, the Board may deny your application on the grounds of credential fraud. Let us help you correct any errors in your application and explain their cause so that you do not face credential fraud charges.
Missouri IMG ECFMG Issues
Your ECFMG issues may involve questions about whether your international medical school was on ECFMG's approved list when you graduated. We can help straighten out those issues. Your bigger ECFMG issue, though, may have to do with the transcript that your international medical school supplies or fails to supply. Your school needs to update your transcript to reflect your graduation and your satisfaction with any other outstanding school issues, such as unresolved disciplinary charges. We can help you communicate with your school's registrar for those corrections. We can also help convince the registrar or other officials to supply the necessary transcript to ECFMG in the right form, with the right authentication, and by the required means.
We can also help if you have similar documentation or authentication issues with your U.S. citizenship or lawful immigrant status. We can help address those issues. We can also help you correct errors, omissions, and inconsistencies in your ECFMG EPIC portfolio in ways that do not lead to suspicions of credential fraud. Beware of any such fraud allegations. ECFMG Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior authorize ECFMG officials to deny certification of IMGs who subvert ECFMG processes.
Missouri IMG USMLE Issues
Studying for and passing the USMLE Step 3 exam depends on your diligence and commitment. You may, though, run into issues with the number and timing of retakes the USMLE permits you. The general limit is three exam attempts within a year plus a six-month wait for a fourth exam. If you suddenly fall ill or suffer injury or can show other extenuating circumstances, you can show the USMLE; you may be able to schedule an additional exam without the prior attempt counting against your retake limit. Let us help prove your extenuating circumstances. Other USMLE issues can arise around proctor or examinee accusations that you used unauthorized materials or devices during the exam, disclosed confidential questions after the exam, or cheated in another way. We can help you show USMLE investigators your innocence in the face of cheating charges or invoke USMLE Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior for a formal hearing at which to present your exonerating and mitigating evidence.
Procedural Protections for Missouri IMGs
Both the ECFMG and USMLE follow Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior, providing an accused international medical graduate with protective procedures by which to resolve credentials issues. The ECFMG, for instance, constitutes a Credentials Committee to hear your dispute and a Review Committee to let you appeal an adverse decision on your issue. Our attorneys can appear before the Credentials Committee to present your evidence and account, and if you have already lost your hearing, appeal the loss to the Review Committee. The Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts will likewise provide you with due process in the event that it finds evidence of wrongdoing in your Board application. We can invoke similar Board procedures to communicate, advocate, and negotiate on your behalf for appropriate relief.
Missouri IMG Licensing Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Missouri to represent you in your ECFMG, USMLE, and Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
