Pennsylvania can be a great state in which to practice medicine as an international medical graduate (IMG). But IMGs have extra licensing hoops through which to jump, well beyond those required of graduates of U.S. medical programs. Don't let ECFMG, USMLE, or Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine licensing issues spoil your plans for a Pennsylvania medical practice. Retain the LLF Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for the highly skilled and experienced attorneys you need for your best IMG licensing outcome. Our attorneys are available in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading City, Upper Darby, Scranton, Lower Merion, Bensalem, Abington, Lancaster City, Bethlehem City, and at every other location across the state. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form for your best Pennsylvania IMG licensing issue outcome.
The Benefits of Pennsylvania IMG Licensure
We all know the substantial benefits of a U.S.-based medical practice. And medical practice in Pennsylvania can be among the best places to enjoy those substantial benefits. Pennsylvania has the substantial population, diverse economy, broad employer base, high quality medical education programs, comprehensive healthcare coverage, and sophisticated hospital facilities and healthcare system for a financially, professionally, and personally rewarding medical practice. The state's large and well equipped and staffed Temple University Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Reading Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and Jefferson Abington Hospital provide substantial employment and practice privilege opportunities. You know why you chose to pursue medical licensure in Pennsylvania. Let us help you preserve that ambition and dream for all the return it should bring you.
The Impact of Pennsylvania IMG Licensing Issues
While you know the benefits of Pennsylvania medical practice, you should also know the risks international medical graduate licensing issues can present. Your international medical education required you to invest a huge amount of effort and expense, including forgoing substantial other income and interests. ECFMG, USMLE, and Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine issues place all that investment at risk of loss. With the complexity of IMG licensing issues, it's easy to fall into the trap of delays, disruptions, and denials. The pitfalls and problems can be numerous. Don't let them languish unaddressed. If you do not gain ECFMG certification, you won't sit for the USMLE Step 3 exam. If you don't sit for the USMLE Step 3 exam, you won't pass it, and if you don't pass it, you likely won't get Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine licensure. Without licensure, you lose every opportunity to build a medical practice in Pennsylvania and perhaps in any other U.S. state, depending on the issues leading to your denial. Let us help you promptly and effectively address those issues.
Pennsylvania IMG Licensing Requirements
As an international medical graduate, you have three organizations, not one or two, to satisfy if you are to obtain your Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine license to practice medicine. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) plays primarily an educational document collection, review, and certification role. The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) plays primarily an examination role in confirming your medical knowledge and skills as competent. The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine plays primarily a good moral character and fitness role. Yet the roles, procedures, and requirements of the three organizations overlap. Review the following summary of requirements, and let us help you address your issues satisfying those requirements.
Pennsylvania Medical Board IMG Licensing Requirements
Under 49 Pennsylvania Code Section 17.1, the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine approves international medical graduates for licensure only when meeting several requirements common to other state medical boards. Only the details differ. Those requirements generally include, with certain exceptions, (1) passing one of the approved medical examinations, (2) ECFMG certification of graduation from an approved international medical school, and (3) completion of three years of graduate medical training. Another provision, 49 Pennsylvania Code Section 16.12, adds good moral character, freedom from substance abuse issues, and no felony drug conviction within the past ten years unless rehabilitated and Board excused. Your application to the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine must also be complete, accurate, and not misleading.
For the educational requirement, Pennsylvania will accept either the ECFMG World Directory of Medical Schools listing of the IMG's international medical school and the graduate's individual certification or the graduate's completion of the ECFMG's Fifth Pathway program for a joint medical degree issued by the international medical school and a domestic U.S. medical school. Other rules and statutes provide further details of these Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine requirements. Our attorneys can help you resolve disputes over these requirements.
ECFMG Requirements for Pennsylvania IMGs
You've seen above that 49 Pennsylvania Code Section 17.1 expressly requires that you have ECFMG certification if graduating from an international medical school not having domestic U.S. medical school accreditation. To gain ECFMG certification you must create an online portfolio through the ECFMG's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) system. As you are likely aware, you must then upload or authorize others to supply your international medical school transcript and other indicia of your graduation, U.S. citizenship, or lawful U.S. residency status by immigration visa. Once you meet ECFMG documentation requirements, you should have ECFMG approval.
The ECFMG, though, requires that your submissions must be complete, consistent, accurate, and neither altered, false, nor misleading. Your documentation must also meet ECFMG requirements to establish their authenticity, whether by signature, seal, attestation, original rather than copy, or direct transmission from the registrar or other reliable recordkeeper. Your issues are more likely to involve documentation and authentication requirements, given the challenges of getting recordkeepers to supply updated, authenticated documents by the specific transmission means ECFMG requires. We can help you address ECFMG requirements in dispute in your submissions.
USMLE Requirements for Pennsylvania IMGs
As briefly indicated above, 49 Pennsylvania Code Section 17.1 requires that an international medical graduate pass an authorized medical examination. The statute authorizes several such examinations as sufficient to meet Pennsylvania medical licensure requirements. Those examinations include the FLEX, NBME National Boards, or USMLE Step 3 exam. Because international medical graduates may have only the USMLE Step 3 exam available to them and must, in any case, obtain ECFMG certification to gain a Pennsylvania medical license, you and other IMGs will likely elect to take or have to take the USMLE Step 3 exam.
The USMLE accepts ECFMG certification to qualify for the exam but requires you to apply. Your USMLE application and all communications for scheduling and qualifying for the exam must be accurate and not misleading. You must also follow all USMLE rules relating to unauthorized exam devices or materials in the exam room, unauthorized solicitation, use, or distribution of confidential exam questions before or after the exam, disobeying proctor instructions during the exam, and similar misconduct. Passing the USMLE Step 3 exam is hard. But complying with USMLE rules in every single detail and respect may be your greater challenge. Let us help if you face cheating charges.
Pennsylvania IMG Issues and Problems
International medical graduates face so many ECFMG, USMLE, and Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine requirements, far more than domestic medical graduates, that licensing pitfalls, problems, and issues are common. Consider some of the following common IMG issues that can arise when you try to meet the above requirements for each of the three organizations involved in IMG licensure. We can help you with any of these issues, with any of these organizations, by invoking their protective procedures.
Pennsylvania Medical Board IMG Issues
Your Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine issue may have its root in your inability to satisfy ECFMG or USMLE requirements because of the issues named below. If we can help you resolve those ECFMG and USMLE issues, then we should be able to help you clear up those issues as to the State Board of Medicine. We often communicate with the state board regarding our efforts with the ECFMG and USMLE, making sure that state board officials keep the application open pending other ECFMG and USMLE resolutions.
As to the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine itself, your issues will likely involve the Board's good moral character under 49 Pennsylvania Code Section 16.12. The statute adds related character issues involving alcohol or drug abuse, dependency, or addiction (the statute's language is “not intemperately using” alcohol or drugs), and felony drug conviction within the past ten years unless you can show the Board that you have rehabilitated your dependency, which the Board is thus willing to excuse. Domestic violence restraining orders, mental illness and commitment, physical disability interfering with clinical capacity, and even malpractice or other indications of incompetence during residency are other potential issues. We help IMGs address these issues with appropriate medical consultation and presentation before the Board, following its protective procedures.
Pennsylvania IMG ECFMG Issues
ECFMG documentation and authentication issues are often the bugaboos for Pennsylvania IMGs. Getting domestic recordkeepers to supply, directly to the ECFMG, accurate, original, properly signed, sealed, attested, or otherwise authenticated documents can be difficult. Getting international recordkeepers to do so can be much harder. Our attorneys know how to assist, persuade, and convince those recordkeepers to do so. The related ECFMG issue you may face may be that your concerted documentation efforts led to ECFMG's suspicions that your submissions were inconsistent, contradictory, false, altered, fabricated, or otherwise misleading. If so, you may face charges that you attempted to deceive ECFMG officials, on the basis of which the ECFMG's Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior authorizes denial of your certification. Let us help with these and other ECFMG issues.
Pennsylvania IMG USMLE Issues
Your USMLE issues may begin with difficulty passing the challenging Step 3 exam. Ordinarily, obtaining a passing score is the examinee's challenge, based on diligent studies. However, other issues can arise when extenuating circumstances like sudden illness or injury just before your scheduled exam require that you withdraw so that you do not waste an attempt against the retake limit. The USMLE has a procedure for extenuating circumstances, provided you follow the procedure before attempting the exam. If you have issues around extenuating circumstances and retake limits, we may be able to help.
More probably, your issues will have to do with anomalies in your exam performance or conduct, giving rise to allegations or suspicions of cheating. Proctors, test center staff, or other examinees may report those suspicions, causing USMLE officials to withhold and invalidate your Step 3 exam score. We can help you prepare for and give an accurate interview account of your actions during the initial USMLE investigation. If suspicions remain, USMLE officials may follow the ECFMG irregular behavior procedures to withhold and invalidate your score unless, with our help, you successfully invoke the protective procedures. Other issues may involve application misrepresentations or misuse of confidential exam questions. Let us help you defend any such charges.
Procedural Protections for Pennsylvania IMGs
Denial of your Pennsylvania IMG medical license affects your substantial property rights and interests. You may have due process rights to fair notice of the deficiency of your application and a hearing on any misconduct or other allegations or issues before the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine. Several statutory provisions afford physicians such rights in Pennsylvania medical disciplinary processes. The ECFMG's Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior authorize a Credentials Committee to hold a formal hearing to address your issues and grant you the right to appeal an adverse decision to a Review Committee. Our attorneys can help you invoke those rights and similar rights the USMLE's related policy affords.
Pennsylvania IMG Licensing Representation
The LLF Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available to represent you before the ECFMG, USMLE, and Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine on any of the above issues or other issues. We are available at any Pennsylvania location or nationally for your best outcome to Pennsylvania IMG issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
