What does the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact mean for physicians?
Your life as a working physician is easier thanks to the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (MLC).
Through the Compact, you can more easily obtain licenses in most U.S. states. Here’s what you need to know about the Compact and how it impacts you.
What is the IMLC?
The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission is a group of state medical board executives, administrators, and attorneys who came together to find a better way to help physicians get licensed.
The Commission created the Compact to allow states to more freely share licensing information, thus creating an expedited process for physicians to get licensed in multiple states. In turn, physicians will have an easier time going to work in multiple states and getting to patients who need them most.
Fortunately, most U.S. states and territories have agreed to the terms of the IMLC, reflected in the map below (via imlcc.org). Each state had to pass legislation authorizing the state to join the compact.
Currently, when a physician submits an application in a particular state, all of the application items, information, and documentation remain within that particular state. If utilizing the Compact, the physician would submit all of this information one time, not over and over again with every state where he or she would be applying.
What does the IMLC mean for me?
For physicians, the IMLC means freedom – to easily and quickly work in different states and serve populations who need you.
“The biggest benefit for physicians will be the decrease in time it will take to receive licenses in multiple states,” said Diana Shepard, former Communications Chair of the Interstate Licensure Compact Commission. “Particularly, those physicians involved in telemedicine, locum tenens practices and providing access to quality care in rural areas of the country.”
Some states are able to process an application within weeks, which will then be distributed to all states requested by the applicant for licensure. This drastically cuts the time required by the previous model, in which physicians had to apply and wait weeks in each individual state.