FSMB receives three-year HRSA grant to streamline state medical licensure process

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has been awarded a three-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to continue initiatives currently underway to streamline the state medical licensure process and reduce statutory and regulatory barriers to telemedicine. The grant is the third the FSMB has received from HRSA since 2006 to facilitate license portability.

Thirty-six licensing authorities supported the FSMB's grant application and two partner organizations - Administrators in Medicine (AIM) and the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) - will participate in the three-year grant project plan.

"State medical boards recognize that telemedicine - and the growth of practicing medicine across state lines - are growing factors in the overall practice of medicine," said Lance Talmage, MD, Chair of the FSMB. "FSMB has been proactively developing tools such as a uniform licensing application and streamlined credentials verification to allow state boards to bring more standardization to licensing processes, while maintaining jurisdiction over physicians practicing in their states. We are pleased with the ongoing support of HRSA and look forward to continued progress in our efforts to enhance license portability."

The new grant will support these ongoing initiatives:

Increase usage of the Uniform Application for Physician State Licensure (UA): The Uniform Application streamlines the licensure process by allowing physicians to complete an online application once and then use the application whenever they apply for licensure in another state that accepts or requires the UA. Under the new grant, the AAPA and the FSMB will explore the benefits and feasibility of a uniform application for physician assistants.

Reduce credentialing redundancies amongst licensure jurisdictions: The grant will support ongoing enhancements to the Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS). The FCVS encourages license portability by allowing physicians and physician assistants to establish a lifetime portfolio of primary-source verified credentials which can be forwarded, at the applicant's request, to state medical boards or health care entities.

Develop licensure models to facilitate multi-state practice: The grant will support efforts to effectively address statutory and regulatory barriers to multi-state practice. Under the grant, the FSMB will convene representatives from state medical boards to explore alternative licensing models, and confer with other regulatory boards to evaluate their multi-state practice models.