Puerto Rico Medical Exam - Missouri Medical Board

Recently we licensed 4 physicians with the Missouri Medical Board who were licensed in the State of Puerto Rico. They had not taken the USMLE / FLEX / NBME. They had only taken the Puerto Rico State Medical License Examination. The Missouri Medical Board is the only State Medical Board which recognizes the Puerto Rico State Medical License Examination

Medical Board of California - Reduced Licensure Time

The Medical Board of California has finally over come the budgetary constraints and furlough days which had plagued the Board over the past two years. Currently the Board is back on track, reviewing applications after 60 days. This is allowing for Medical Licensing time frames of 70 to 120 days. This on face value might seem like an extended period of time but considering that the Average State Medical Board takes 90 days to issue a license, the California Medical Board has made drastic improvements. MedLicense.com currently is experiencing 70-90 day time frame for Domestic Physicians applying for a license in the State of California.

Who accepts the Puerto Rico Medical Exam?

Recently both Washington State and Indiana changed their rules to exclude the Puerto Rico Medical Examination. This took affect May 2008 and April 2008 respectively. Now there is only one State which still accepts the Puerto Rico Medical Examination. That State is Missouri. This was confirmed on 07/15/08 during a conversation with the Missouri Medical Board's manager.

International Physicians - USA Licensing without the ECFMG

There are only 2 States which will allow an International Physician to license in the USA without an ECFMG Certificate. They are as follows:

California Medical Board
West Virginia Medical Board

All Physicians must have taken an approved examination in order to license. (i.e. USMLE, NBME, FLEX, LMCC, NBOME)

Nevada Medical Board - Licensing by Endorsement

The Nevada Medical Board is one of the few State Medical Boards which allows Physicians who are only licensed in Puerto Rico to license by Endorsement. The licensure process is contingent upon two issues. One that they are a graduate of a Domestic Medical School. Two that they are Board Certified. If the physician is not a Domestic Graduate, then an ECFMG Certificate will be required.

The Endorsement Process is typically utilized by Physician who have not passed a licensure examination within the past 10 years.

West Virginia Medical Board

The West Virginia Medical Board moved on 09/16/07 to no longer accept the Puerto Rico Medical Board Examination. Any physician applying to the West Virginia Medical Board will now have to have one of the following examinations:

-USMLE
-FLEX
-NBME
-NBOME
-LMCC
-State Board Examination in one of the 50 States

The reasons put forth were that the Puerto Rico Medical Board examination is given in both English and Spanish (on the same document). We believe that the real reason for this move is the fact that the Puerto Rico Medical Board is under investigation due to fraudulent examination score reporting to 3rd parties.

California Medical Board

The California Medical Board has a reputation of being a difficult board to apply to. The application process can in some cases take 6 to 12 months. Fortunately, our experience has been that Physicians seeking a license to practice medicine in the State of California typically run between 3 to 4 months. Licensure times can be reduced if the Physician takes a trip to California to have the Live Scan process completed instead of the Fingerprint Cards. Livescan takes 2 to 3 days to run whereas the Fingerprint Cards take 2 to 3 months (if they are not rejected).

All bets are off if the Physician has negatives in their educational, training, or practice history. Then licensure times typically run 6 to 12 months.