NBME/USMLE Defense for Connecticut Medical Students and Graduates

A Connecticut medical practice and career are rewarding propositions, given the state's sophisticated healthcare system, dynamic economy, proximity to major cultural centers, and attractive residential neighborhoods. You have every indication of establishing a thriving practice based on your hard-earned credentials. The Connecticut Medical Examining Board, lodged under the Connecticut State Department of Public Health, is your last gatekeeper to that vital Connecticut medical practice. You must, however, successfully surmount your NBME, USMLE, FLEX, or other medical licensing exam issues to gain your required medical licensure.

The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Connecticut for skilled and experienced attorney representation to effectively resolve NBME / USMLE issues. We are available in Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Hartford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, West Hartford, Greenwich, Fairfield, Hamden, Bristol, Meriden, Manchester, West Haven, Stratford, Milford, and all other Connecticut locations to help you complete your Connecticut Medical Examining Board licensure. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our strategic defense services. Preserve and protect your enormous investment in a Connecticut medical practice.

Advantages of Connecticut Medical Practice

Connecticut's abundant sophisticated medical facilities increase your prospects for a rewarding medical practice. Those facilities include Yale New Haven Hospital, Hartford Hospital, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Bridgeport Hospital, St. Vincent's Medical Center, Danbury Hospital, the Hospital of Central Connecticut, Norwalk Hospital, and Waterbury Hospital, among other outstanding facilities around the state. Your Connecticut medical practice will give you and your patients abundant access to top medical facilities. Connecticut also offers the UConn School of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, and Frank H. Netter School of Medicine, also known as Quinnipiac Medical School, for your medical teaching interests, research needs, and continuing medical education and other professional development. Let us help you address and favorably resolve your NBME / USMLE issues so that you can begin your medical practice with those advantages.

Connecticut Medical Licensing Authority

Section 20-9 of Connecticut's Medical Practice Act requires any physician seeking to practice medicine in the state to first obtain a medical license. The Act's Section 20-14 criminalizes the practice of medicine without a license as a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The Act's Section 20-8a creates the Connecticut Medical Examining Board to license physicians under the Act's standards and administrative rules and regulations the Medical Examining Board adopts carrying out those standards. The Medical Examining Board invites your medical license application but will investigate your qualifications to ensure that you meet all licensing requirements, including the requirement for a medical licensing examination. Don't let your NBME / USMLE issues forestall your Connecticut medical licensure. Get our help resolving those issues.

Connecticut Medical Licensure General Requirements

Section 20-10 of Connecticut's Medical Practice Act states the general requirements for medical licensure. Those requirements include graduation from an approved medical education program, successful completion of at least two years of medical residency, and passing a medical licensing exam that the Department of Public Health prescribes by administrative rule, with the approval of the Medical Examining Board. Department of Public Health administrative rules detail the medical education and graduate medical education requirements. Connecticut's Medical Practice Act no longer carries the prior good moral character requirement, but rejection of your medical license application by another state's medical licensing board, felony criminal conviction, or other evidence of unfitness for medical practice may trigger further review, relying on implicit fitness requirements. Let us help you address and resolve any licensing issues, including but not limited to your NBME / USMLE issues.

Connecticut Medical License Application Requirements

Section 20-10 of Connecticut's Medical Practice Act requires license applicants to certify to the Department of Public Health and the Medical Examining Board that they have met the license requirements. You do so by completing the Medical Examining Board's application forms and documentation requirements. The accuracy of your statements and the reliability of your documentation is critical to your application's success. Section 20-10 also expressly warns that the Commissioner of Public Health may deny licensure if the Medical Examining Board finds that the applicant “provided fraudulent or inaccurate documentation” of the applicant's graduate education program or other academic credentials or otherwise “failed to meet educational standards” as the Board provides. While you no doubt intend no fraud, careless but convenient errors in statements or omissions or alterations in documentation can lead to credential fraud charges. That risk is especially prevalent related to NBME / USMLE issues that may arise after you apply for your medical license. Let us help you update and correct your license application while working diligently to resolve your NBME / USMLE issues.

Connecticut Medical Licensing Exam Requirements

As indicated above, Section 20-10 of Connecticut's Medical Practice Act states the medical licensing exam requirement, leaving it to the Medical Examining Board to approve which exam or exams will qualify. Section 20-10 expressly provides that the Medical Examining Board may also establish the necessary passing exam score. The Medical Examining Board has exercised its statutory authority to determine the required medical licensing exam by approving the NBME, USMLE, or FLEX exam for allopathic physicians or the NBOME for osteopathic physicians. The Medical Examining Board may also accept some combination of those or other exams under some circumstances and conditions. The requirements refer to a passing score of 75 or an equivalent scaled score consistent with the passing standards of the sponsoring exam organizations. The Medical Examining Board does not impose an attempts limit, unlike some other state medical boards limiting attempts to three, four, or a higher number, cumulatively or over a one-year period or other period. You must, however, complete all three USMLE step exams within seven years. Let us help you interpret and apply these requirements to evaluate and resolve your NBME / USMLE issues.

NBME / USMLE Issues Affecting Connecticut Medical Licensure

Exam organization rules, policies, and procedures anticipate certain common NBME, USMLE, and FLEX issues. Your NBME / USMLE issues probably fall within one or more of the common areas where examinees face such issues, covered by exam rules and policies, even if your particular circumstances are unusual or unique. Our attorneys can help you address any of the following six common categories for NBME / USMLE issues, as the following sections address in further detail:

1. your qualification for the medical licensing exam;
2. your passage of the medical licensing exam within attempt limits;
3. your irregular behavior before, during, or after the exam;
4. your anomalous exam performance leaving an unusually low score;
5. your invalidated exam score in a suspicious pattern or high level; or
6. your extenuating circumstances justifying an extra exam attempt.

USMLE Qualification Issues for Connecticut Physicians

Qualifying for the NBME, USMLE, or FLEX may be significantly harder than you think. Put another way, qualifying for the medical licensing exam can trigger several serious issues. Qualifying for the exam typically requires some coordination between your Connecticut Medical Examining Board license application and your application to NBME / USMLE officials to take the exam. You must, in other words, meet the Medical Examining Board's medical education and graduate training requirements, depending on which step exam you are taking, while also meeting the terms and conditions the exam organization imposes. The USMLE Bulletin of Information, for good instance,lists its own exam qualification requirements along with the other terms and conditions you must meet while taking the exam. Qualification requirements can trigger the following licensing exam issues:

• false application statements construed as credential fraud;
• misleading application omissions construed as concealment of disqualifying information;
• missing documentation failing to satisfy eligibility standards;
• supplying document copies rather than originals or documents without required certification and authentication, raising alteration questions;
• supplying documents yourself or through someone other than the registrar or recordkeeper, suggesting potential forgery;
• inconsistencies between your application statements and documentation, construed as misrepresentations;
• graduation from a non-approved medical school or an approved medical school having lost accreditation before graduation;
• unsatisfactory academic progress through your medical education program, reflected by academic probation, suspension, or dismissal and reinstatement;
• discipline for unprofessionalism, impairment, or other misconduct in the course of your clinical education or residency, or unresolved disciplinary charges reflected on transcripts and other records;
• absent documentation of state identification, U.S. citizenship, or lawful residency status; and
• disqualifying criminal convictions or absent criminal history checks.

How We Help Address USMLE Qualification Issues

Our first role in helping you address NBME / USMLE qualification issues is to ensure that the Connecticut Medical Examining Board knows that we are diligently helping you do so. You don't want the Medical Examining Board rejecting your application in the middle of our efforts to resolve your exam qualification issues. Our next role often has to do with hurrying along the documentation process, getting updated, corrected, original, and authenticated medical school transcripts and medical residency records to the exam organization and Medical Examining Board to resolve documentation issues. We can do likewise with your state identification and lawful U.S. residency documentation, as well as your criminal history records. If you first need to resolve pending school or residency disciplinary charges, then we can help you do so.

Connecticut Medical Licensing Exam Passage

Passing the NBME, USMLE, or FLEX exam would seem like your personal challenge, with the support of appropriate resources, tutors, and study advisors and services. But we may be able to help you gain an extra exam attempt or two to enable your exam passage after multiple exam failures. Failing a USMLE step exam is not unusual. You've likely seen classmates do so. Medical students and graduates can be wisely strategic about their use of limited exam study time, attempting a step exam to learn whether they have already gained the knowledge and skill necessary for passage or need further exam studies. No one should be too surprised if you failed a step exam. Multiple failures of the same step exam, though, can threaten your continued exam qualification. You've seen above that the Connecticut Medical Examining Board does not impose its own attempts to limit when to the contrary the USMLE has its own attempts limit of just four tries. You may face disqualification under NBME, USMLE, or FLEX attempts limits when the Connecticut Medical Examining Board would permit you unlimited attempts.

How We Help with USMLE Attempts Limit Issues

If you face an attempt limit issue with your exam organization, we may be able to help. First, we may be able to show that the Connecticut Medical Examining Board would accept a passing score if the NBME, USMLE, or FLEX officials granted you an additional retake. We may alternatively be able to invoke a policy like the USMLE's extenuating circumstances policy, granting extra attempts when emergencies intervene to frustrate or destroy a scheduled attempt. The extenuating circumstances policy requires your prompt notice to exam officials of your illness or injury, the illness or injury of a close family member who depends on your care, or a similar emergency. We can help you with that notice and with documentation of your grounds for an extra attempt. That showing may be easier if you missed your scheduled exam than it would be if you attempted but quit your exam, but in either case, we may be able to qualify you for the extra attempt you need to pass the next or last step exam.

Connecticut Physician USMLE Irregular Behavior Issues

You may alternatively face irregular behavior charges, which is what USMLE policies call cheating or similar misconduct. The USMLE Bulletin of Information defines irregular behavior as an attempt to “compromise [exam] validity, integrity, or security.” While cheating can come in virtually any form, the Bulletin of Information lists these irregular behavior examples:

• presenting an impostor to take your exam;
• serving as an impostor to take another candidate's exam;
• help another examinee during an exam;
• accepting help from another examinee during the exam;
• registering for or scheduling an exam when you are not eligible;
• falsifying your exam qualifications, whether eligible or ineligible;
• supplying fake or forged documentation of qualifications;
• seeking confidential exam questions before the exam;
• disclosing confidential exam questions after the exam;
• obstructing or disobeying test center staff or exam proctors;
• bringing unauthorized devices or materials into the exam room;
• removing exam materials from the room after the exam;
• misrepresenting exam passage when you failed the exam;
• failing to report cheating you observed by others;
• failing to cooperate with an investigation of exam cheating;
• false statements in the course of an investigation.

How We Address USMLE Irregular Behavior Charges

Don't let cheating charges discourage you from pursuing your defense of those charges. Yes, cheating charges are serious. But we may be able to show that exam proctors, test center staff, or fellow examinees misidentified you or misconstrued your actions. We may be able to show that the suspicious actions others reported were entirely innocent or did not in fact, happen. We may be able to discredit the complaining witnesses out of their conflict of interest or bias or that they lack the factual foundation for the observations they claim. The USMLE Office of the Secretariat offers candidates facing irregular behavior charges an adjudication process, summarized in the charge notice. Let our attorneys invoke that adjudication process for you so that we can present your explanation and evidence to an impartial and disinterested decision maker. Cheating charges don't necessarily mean that exam officials have inculpating evidence. They may have nothing more than complainant suspicions. Let us help you present your best defense case to preserve your exam qualification.

Connecticut Physician USMLE Anomalous Performance Issues

Your medical licensing exam performance itself may implicate other issues. NBME, USMLE, and FLEX officials routinely measure individual exam scores against the normal distribution of exam scores. They also analyze exam attempts for unusual patterns such as skipped sections or uniform answers indicating a disingenuous attempt. Exam officials do not want unqualified individuals entering the exam room on the pretext of an earnest attempt when their presence is instead to copy questions or steal exam materials. If your exam responses indicate an extremely low score or other aberrant performance, exam officials may apply a policy like the USMLE anomalous performance policy to bar you from further attempts. If you can no longer attempt your medical licensing exam because of an anomalous performance, the Connecticut Medical Examining Board will reject your license application and close your file.

How We Address USMLE Anomalous Performance

The USMLE and other exam organizations do not generally offer a formal adjudication process for anomalous performance. The reason likely has to do with the necessity of disclosing confidential exam questions, answers, scoring methods, and analytic methods in any fair adjudication process. The exam organizations invest far too much time, expense, and effort in developing valid and reliable tests to ruin their integrity with fishing expeditions in the guise of adjudication processes.

Your options when facing an anomalous performance finding are thus generally limited to seeking to remove, through informal channels of communication and negotiation, the exam retake bar. We may be able to help you document your explanation for your anomalous performance, whether you accidentally skipped sections, misunderstood exam instructions, suffered a temporary blackout or other medical or mental event, or faced another unusual or emergency circumstance. We may also be able to make a strong defense case out of your strong medical school academic performance and your general good character.

Connecticut Physician USMLE Invalidated Score Issues

Just as a very low score may trigger a medical licensing exam issue, so, too, may a very high score trigger an exam issue. You might think that taking your medical licensing exam is a good thing, not a bad thing. Strong performance generally is a good thing. But when strong performance crosses the line into such strong performance as to fall far outside the normal distribution of top exam scores, or when the pattern of your answers and other answers of fellow examinees indicates identical strings of potentially coordinated answers, then exam officials may use a measure like the USMLE's invalidated score policy to withhold your score. You could also find yourself barred from further attempts on the exam, jeopardizing your Connecticut Medical Examining Board application and licensure.

How We Address a USMLE Invalidated Score

When you retain our attorneys to address your NBME / USMLE issues, and your issue is an invalidated score, we won't likely be able to secure the release of your answers, their pattern, and the analysis exam officials used to detect suspected cheating and invalidate the score. Those disclosures could destroy exam confidentiality and integrity. But we may be able to present convincing evidence of your special academic and test-taking skills, from your strong medical school record and other standardized examinations. You might be the exam genius your invalidated medical licensing exam score indicated rather than a cheater. We may also be able to present your evidence of your good moral character, sufficient to gain you another exam attempt. We would simultaneously advocate with the Connecticut Medical Examining Board to keep your license application file open.

Connecticut Administrative Review Procedures

You generally have constitutional due process rights against arbitrary state agency actions depriving you of property or liberty interests. Section 19a-9-24 of the Connecticut Department of Public Health's Administrative Rules recognizes and preserves your due process rights by guaranteeing you a hearing in a contested disciplinary case. Section 19a-9-24 expressly incorporates Connecticut's administrative procedure act codified in Chapter 54 of the Connecticut General Statutes. Those procedural protections, though, are not self-executing. The Medical Examining Board won't plead and prove your defense for you. We must instead invoke your hearing right, helping you to present your defense evidence and challenge adverse evidence at the administrative hearing. Let us do so for your best disciplinary outcome.

Premier NBME / USMLE Defense in Connecticut

The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Connecticut to help you resolve your NBME / USMLE issues. Our skilled and experienced attorneys help hundreds of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in Connecticut and nationwide successfully resolve their licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our premier attorneys.