Medical students and graduates planning to license and practice in Texas make enormous investments of time, trouble, effort, and expense to achieve their professional goals. You have everything on the line when you face NBME or USMLE issues qualifying for licensure by the Texas Medical Board. If you are unable to license in Texas, you may not obtain licensure in another Interstate Medical Licensure Compact state. NBME or USMLE issues can be the death knell to medical licensure and practice not only in Texas but also nationwide.
If you are a Texas-based medical student or graduate, working to obtain a Texas Medical board license, but your NBME / USMLE issues are frustrating or delaying your licensure, retain the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team now for the highly qualified attorney representation you need to favorably resolve your licensing issues. We are available in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Plano, Lubbock, Laredo, Irving, Garland, Frisco, Amarillo, Arlington, and at every other location across Texas. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to preserve and protect your enormous investment in Texas Medical Board licensure.
Benefits of Texas Medical Licensure
You likely already know that Texas can be a fantastic state in which to license and practice medicine. Houston Methodist Hospital, Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center, University Hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital, Methodist Hospital, Baylor University Medical Center, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas are just a few of the state's world-class medical facilities, supporting the most sophisticated healthcare system. Keep in mind the substantial rewards of your anticipated Texas medical practice when determining to retain our premier attorneys to help you favorably resolve your NBME / USMLE issues.
Texas Medical Licensure Authorities
The Texas Medical Practice Act created the Texas Medical Board as the authority to license physicians for practice within the state. The Texas Medical Practice Act's Section 153.001 authorizes the Texas Medical Board to adopt rules and regulations for physician licensure in the state. Those rules set forth the education, examination, clinical experience, good character, and application requirements for licensure. Section 155.002 of the Texas Medical Practice Act grants the Texas Medical Board the sole discretion to issue medical licenses. Under Texas Medical Practice Act Section 155.001, you must not practice medicine in Texas without a license or related license exemption from the Texas Medical Board. Our attorneys can help you communicate, advocate, and negotiate with Texas Medical Board officials to resolve your NBME / USMLE issues.
Texas Medical Licensure Requirements
Texas Medical Practice Act Sections 155.003 et seq. detail the Texas Medical Board's licensure requirements. Those requirements include your minimum age, good professional character, including a criminal background check, your education, including graduate medical training, and your accurate and complete license application. Yet the key part of your qualification for a Texas medical license is meeting the examination requirements set forth in Sections 155.051 et seq. Section 155.0511 expressly authorizes licensure based on your passage of the NBME examination, USMLE examination, or their successor examinations. A corollary Texas Medical Board rule codified at 22 Texas Administrative Code Section 163.6 reiterates and adds to those qualifying exams. While the Texas Medical Practice Act and Board rules offer other examination options, including the FLEX and NBOME exams, the NBME or USMLE may be the primary or only option for which you readily qualify. Your Texas medical licensure requires you to pass the NBME / USMLE examination or another equivalent approved exam.
Texas Exam Attempt Limits
As you likely well know, the USMLE is a three-step exam, with each step administered at different stages of your medical education and graduate training. The Federation of State Medical Boards and the National Board of Medical Examiners sponsor the USMLE. Those sponsors generally design and administer the USMLE for candidates to take and pass each step before attempting the next step, requiring passage of Steps 1 and 2 before attempting Step 3. Under Texas law, you only get three attempts at each USMLE step. The Texas Medical Practice Act also limits the number of attempts you may make to pass the NBME or other qualifying medical examination. The Act's Section 155.056 requires that you pass each part of your exam within no more than three attempts. Beware the Texas three-attempt rule. USMLE rules permit four, not just three, retake attempts for each of the three step exams. But if you plan to license in Texas, you must meet the state's three-attempt limit.
NBME/ USMLE Issues Affecting Texas Medical Licensure
Medical students and graduates seeking Texas medical licensure can face several NBME / USMLE issues delaying or preventing their qualification for a Texas Medical Board license. Those issues include (1) qualifying for the exam, (2) obtaining your passing score against charges of irregular behavior, (3) remaining qualified for a retake exam after notice of anomalous performance, (4) obtaining your passing score after notice of an invalidated score, and (5) showing extenuating circumstances to qualify for a retake against the attempts limit. Consider each of those issues in turn and how our attorneys may be able to help you favorably resolve those issues.
Texas Medical Graduate Issues Qualifying for the NBME / USMLE
Your first obstacle in passing the NBME / USMLE for Texas medical licensure may be in qualifying to take the exam. The USMLE Bulletin of Information details those exam qualification requirements. Exam officials require that you apply for the exam, showing your qualifying medical education, citizenship or residency status, secure identity, and other information. Your application must include complete, consistent, and authenticated documentation. Any of the following issues with your application may result in your rejection to sit for the exam:
- your medical school fails to update your transcript with the necessary completed coursework;
- your medical school fails to update your transcript to reflect the favorable resolution of disciplinary charges or other holds;
- your medical school fails to provide the authenticated transcript the exam sponsors require;
- exam sponsors question your medical school's approved status during your medical studies;
- your application does not include adequate documentation of your lawful citizenship or residency status;
- your application suggests disqualifying criminal court convictions or other background issues;
- exam sponsors determine your exam application to be incomplete without specifying the missing documents or information or
- exam sponsors determine your exam application and documentation to be contradictory and inconsistent, raising credential fraud issues.
How Our Attorneys Address Qualifying Issues
Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, experience, professional contacts, reputation, and relationships to help you resolve the above issues qualifying for the NBME / USMLE to satisfy Texas medical licensure requirements. We can communicate and advocate with your medical school's registrar to update your transcript and supply it in the required original or certified form. If you have unresolved medical school, criminal court documentation, U.S. residency or citizenship, or other background and documentation issues, we can help you resolve those issues. If, instead, exam sponsors maintain that your documentation did not come from the proper source or by the proper means, we can help you correct those transmission issues. If your NBME / USMLE application appears inaccurate, inconsistent, or incomplete, we can help you communicate with exam sponsors to determine what they believe to be the issues and to provide your additional documentation or explanation to resolve those issues. Let us help you qualify for the exam.
Texas Medical Graduate USMLE Irregular Behavior Issues
Medical students and graduates seeking Texas medical licensure can also face what NBME and USMLE officials call irregular behavior issues. The USMLE defines irregular behavior as “any action by applicants, examinees, potential applicants or others that could compromise the validity, integrity or security of the USMLE process.” The USMLE gives these examples of irregular behavior:
- registering for or taking an exam when not eligible;
- providing false information or false statements on applications;
- providing false documentation;
- taking or attempting to take an exam for someone else;
- soliciting another to take an exam for you;
- seeking or providing unauthorized access to exam questions or answers;
- unauthorized reproduction of exam materials;
- communicating about test questions, cases, or answers;
- possessing unauthorized materials or devices for an exam;
- failing to follow exam policies or test center staff instructions;
- harassment of test center staff or other examinees;
- other disruptive or unprofessional exam behavior;
- altering or misrepresenting exam scores or outcomes; and
- failing to cooperate fully in an investigation of exam misconduct.
How Our Attorneys Invoke USMLE Irregular Behavior Procedures
If NBME / USMLE exam sponsors determine that you may have committed irregular behavior, they may withhold your exam score. In that case, you should receive an email or other communication from the Office of the USMLE Secretariat indicating the irregular behavior charges and the USMLE adjudication process. The USMLE Bulletin of Information does not disclose the organization's protective procedures. Contact us immediately on your receipt of that notice of charges so that we can help you respond timely, accurately, comprehensively, and appropriately. Keep in mind that failure to cooperate with an exam investigation is itself grounds for withholding and invalidating your passing exam score. Our attorneys can help ensure that your responses do not misrepresent your circumstances in ways that complicate your resolution of NBME / USMLE issues.
Texas Medical Graduate Anomalous Performance Issues
Medical students and graduates seeking Texas medical licensure may also face what NBME and USMLE officials call anomalous performanceissues. The anomalous performance involves a pattern of exam answers suggesting potential unpreparedness or other issues with the exam you took and the answers you provided. Exam investigators analyze exam responses. If they detect anomalous performance issues with your exam, they will not generally share information as to the nature of those anomalies because doing so may undermine exam confidentiality and security. Exam sponsors also do not allow challenges, hearings, and appeals from anomalous performance issues. Let us help you review your circumstances in the event of an anomalous performance notice and communicate with exam sponsors to determine if a favorable resolution is possible. We can also help you ensure that you remain qualified to retake the USMLE after an anomalous performance at the discretion of exam investigators.
Texas Medical Graduate Invalidated Score Issues
USMLE officials may alternatively notify you of an invalidated exam score. Notice of an invalidated exam score is not the same as notice of anomalous performance. Anomalous performance may be innocent. An invalid exam score suggests that exam investigators have detected a pattern of cheating. The notice of invalidated exam score should, like the notice of irregular behavior, describe the USMLE adjudication procedures through which we can help you challenge your invalidated exam score. We can invoke those procedures, help you analyze the charges, identify and gather evidence in response, and present that evidence in writing and at the hearing. If you have already lost your hearing, let us help you review your appeal and other options.
Texas Medical Graduate USMLE Extenuating Circumstances
Medical students and graduates seeking Texas Medical Board licensure can also face issues when illness, injury, or other emergency prevents their exam attendance at the last minute, counting against their retake limit, or cause them to fail the exam. Recall that you only get three attempts for each USMLE step exam under Texas Medical Board rules. You may need all three attempts to pass when your last-minute absence generally counts as an attempt, as would a failure due to poor health or other anomaly. Fortunately, exam sponsors offer an extenuating circumstances policy that our attorneys can help you invoke to avoid the absence or poor performance counting against your retake limit. You must, though, promptly notify exam officials of your extenuating circumstances. We can help you do so. Retain us immediately on the occurrence of those issues so that we can guide you through the process to a favorable conclusion.
Texas Medical Board Response to NBME / USMLE Issues
If you face any of the above NBME / USMLE issues or other exam issues, those issues will delay and can complicate your Texas Medical Board application for licensure. Ordinarily, board officials may leave your application open, awaiting your documentation of your passage of the NBME / USMLE. But board officials may close and deny your application if receiving notice from exam sponsors of your inability to qualify or your disqualification on the above grounds. The Texas Medical Board's administrative rule codified at 22 Texas Administrative Code Section 163.4(d)(5) expressly includes failure to pass the required medical examination as a ground on which to deny a candidate's application for licensure. Board officials may also expect licensure applications to be complete within reasonable periods dictated by graduate dates, residency completion dates, and exam schedules and retake limits, and may close and deny an incomplete application after those reasonable periods expire.
Our Attorneys' Role Addressing Texas Medical Board Status
The Texas Medical Board's Executive Director determines whether your application meets each licensure requirement. You should receive notice of the Executive Director's decision. We can help you get a decision if you do not hear from the Executive Director in a reliable, written form but find that board officials have closed and, therefore, denied your application. Alternatively, we can help you communicate with board officials, updating them on our efforts to help you resolve your NBME / USMLE issues. Our updates may keep your file open when the board would otherwise close and deny it. Indeed, our attorneys have the reputation, relationships, and skills to provide convincing assurances that we are timely pursuing all of your avenues for appropriate relief with the NBME / USMLE officials to pass the licensing exam and qualify for Texas Medical Board licensure. You may, in other words, just need more time. Our assurances can be the key to buying needed time.
Invoking Texas Medical Board Protective Procedures
We can also help you invoke Texas Medical Act protective procedures to challenge a decision that your application does not qualify for licensure. The Texas Medical Board's administrative rule codified at 22 Texas Administrative Code Section 163.4(d)(5) offers aggrieved candidates an appeal from a determination of ineligibility for licensure. The administrative rule suggests that appeals are available for each disqualifying determination. We may, in other words, be able to appeal a preliminary determination that you do not qualify for the NBME or USMLE or that you cannot obtain a passing score within the Board's retake limit. The appeal of the Executive Director's decision goes to the Texas Medical Board's full Licensure Committee, giving you a fresh set of eyes and ears on your grounds for keeping your license application open and alive while we help you favorably resolve your NBME / USMLE issues.
Texas Medical Board Appeal Procedures
An appeal requires more than a simple statement or other communication that you are challenging the Texas Medical Board Executive Director's decision to deny and close your application for medical licensure based on NBME / USMLE issues. An effective appeal generally requires reliable and convincing documentation, authority, and argumentation that the denial was erroneous on specific legal and factual grounds. Your appeal must also be timely, in the right form, to the right officials. Our attorneys can gather the documentation, do the research, draft the appeal brief, timely perfect the appeal, and appear at the appeal hearing to orally advocate for your relief. Successful appeals must generally be technical, precisely documented, sophisticated, sensitive, and compelling. We have the appellate skills and experience to make convincing presentations before the Texas Medical Board's Licensure Committee.
The Role of Qualified License Defense Counsel
Do not rely on unqualified local criminal defense counsel, transactional attorneys, or civil litigators. Administrative appeals of licensing decisions follow different rules, customs, and procedures than criminal or civil court appeals. Our attorneys know those peculiar licensing laws, rules, and procedures. We also know how to invoke them strategically and sensitively to best effect before administrative committees. Unqualified counsel can do more harm than good. You generally have only one administrative appeal, in this case, to the Texas Medical Board's Licensure Committee. You must, therefore, put your best foot forward on that one opportunity if you are to succeed in your effort to obtain a Texas medical license. Don't risk a loss on unqualified counsel. Instead, get our highly qualified representation for your best possible outcome to Texas Medical Board licensing relating to NBME / USMLE issues.
Your Stakes in a Texas Medical Board Proceeding
Keep in mind your high stakes in your Texas Medical Board dispute over your NBME / USMLE issues. Graduating from medical school and completing your medical residency took enormous investment and effort. You may feel as if you have already earned your due reward and that exam and licensing issues are an unfair distraction and annoyance that will soon surely resolve in your favor. We understand your attitude and expectations. However, Texas Medical Board officials have their own obligation to protect patients and the public against unqualified medical practice. They will generally require candidates to complete every large and small licensing requirement exactly as their rules and procedures require. Don't expect them to bend the rules for you. Instead, get our skilled, experienced, effective, timely, and strategic help meeting the board's examination and other requirements. You've invested far too much to risk doing anything other than retaining the best available attorney representation.
Premier NBME / USMLE Defense Available in Texas
You can do no better in your Texas Medical Board matter involving NBME / USMLE or other examination issues than to retain the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team. We have helped hundreds of students, graduates, and professionals in Texas and nationwide successfully resolve school, examination, and licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your case. We are available across Texas to take immediate action on your behalf to preserve your future medical practice in Texas.
