General License Question

[DoctorJ]

I just thought this might be interesting and hope someone would have an answer:

If an IMG is licensed in a couple of states but later those states change their mind about his school approval (if one day they all follow the CA list), will this person's license be revoked or unable to renew due to the law change? Or will his license be grandfathered in?

Thanks.

[Aviv Imanuel]

The norm is to grandfather them in once you have a license and have kept your act together and clean.



I just thought this might be interesting and hope someone would have an answer:

If an IMG is licensed in a couple of states but later those states change their mind about his school approval (if one day they all follow the CA list), will this person's license be revoked or unable to renew due to the law change? Or will his license be grandfathered in?

Thanks.

[Chopdoc]

Normally they are grandfathered....but I think it was last year....Georgia?.....that a resident got their license yanked in such a case. Her Program went to bat for her, I don't know the outcome, probably still fighting.

That's another reason to go to a well established school.

Back in the seventies there was a big scandal with Caribbean schools selling degrees. They gave you a review course for your money and a diploma.

A lot of people were caught up in it, including my brother. He had to prove his credentials all over again in residency because it was suspected his school did that. In the end he was OK, his school was not selling degrees anyway, and he went on....but it was a nightmare for him.

FYI, although they did nail a bunch of people, because of this there are doctors practicing today who never went to med school.

Same with the issue back in the mid nineties. They busted a big cheating scam when the USMLE was still on paper. Basically they had people take the test on the east coast, then fax the memorized questions to the west coast. People payed tens of thousands to be there and get the test just a couple of hours before the exam. That was when the test was taken in big centers by hundreds at a time in the same room.

That scam apparently had gone on for several years and there is no way to tell how many docs are practicing today that participated in it.

After that, around 95 or 96, somebody stole an exam by breaking into a box at UPS. They copied it and replaced the exam....it was discovered after the exam that it had been posted on usenet. Nobody knows how many got it. Nobody knows how many are in practice that cheated on the exam. In the end, they basically did nothing about it.

It is for those reasons that they fast tracked the computer based exam.

Lots of strange things hapen and the history surrounding these things is more convoluted than some would have you think.

Best advice- Go to the most established, most reputable school that you can.