Episode 7: IMLC or Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (Transcript)

SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Heroes of Healthcare Podcasts, Special Edition. I'm your host, Ted Wayne. Today, our guest is Roger Bonds. Roger's advised physicians on their careers for over two decades. He's reviewed over 3,000 physician employment contracts and physician partnership agreements with private practices, hospitals, academia, medical, and pharmaceutical companies. These contracts represent over 1,300 employers throughout the U.S. and abroad. He's president and CEO of PhysicianCareerAdvisor.com. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, where his primary work includes offering expert advice for physicians in private practice and academia. This includes job search and comparison, CV review, interview skills, non-compete agreements, compensation, and buy-in and buy-out options. So let's get into the show. Roger, help us understand the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact and how it can benefit us.

SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk about the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. As you may already know, this is the agreement between most of the states here in the USA that if you have a license in one state, you can apply to utilize the prime source verification from that state where they checked on all of your background, including your education and experience, and utilize that quote credentialing from that state licensure and apply that to go to another state. Now, supposedly, this only takes a few days if the other state has already approved for this or part of the compact, but I would give it at least a few weeks to play it safe. But my point is that you could have the license in one state and be able to go to these other states. You might even want to do this ahead of time, especially let's say that you're looking at making a career change. You know, you might go to the state or that state, or you're starting to do more local attendance and you want to be able to look around and go to these different states. Very, very common that you'll have various licenses because of the compact. Now, when you're wanting to find out the detailed information in which states are involved because it's been gradually expanding, go to their website. It's IMLCC.org. It says IMLCC.org. It has wonderful information on there. And also, I want to point out they'll have this map on the front page. They've always had it since they started in 2017, and it's going to be color-coded, and that color coding shows which states are fully approved for this. Now, of course, we only had the two or three or four or five states originally and gradually many, many of us across the nation have pushed and pushed for this, but it's up to the state legislature to approve it. And so, unfortunately, we still have some holdouts such as our largest state, California is still not a part of it. Another one of our largest states by population is Florida is still not a part of it. And so, there you have great pressure because they're losing all these physicians who would come to them very quickly. So, again, if you're looking at making a job change and maybe you don't have the eight months to go through the process with that particular state, then if you can qualify through this program, then you go to their website and you apply. Now, let me point out. There's a $700 fee for that, but it's a one-time fee, okay? And you can apply for whatever states that you want, and then you'll be able to have that license. You'll need to renew that license with that particular state sometime later, but you'll be able to move very quickly.

SPEAKER_01: Thank you for these insights which are really valuable for our physician community. If you enjoyed this information, please look out for the other topics we'll be covering with Roger. If you want to learn more, visit PhysicianCareerAdvisor.com. Thanks for joining us on this special edition of the Heroes of Healthcare podcast. We'll see you soon.