NBME/USMLE Defense for Kansas Medical Students and Graduates

Medical practice in Kansas offers abundant assured professional opportunities. The Rural Health Information Hub indicates that nearly two-thirds of Kansas counties show a shortage of primary care physicians, while related information indicates that the top five Kansas healthcare systems are all hiring to fill those and other physician positions. The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts thus invites your license application. Once you complete your licensure, you'll find not only gainful professional employment but also top-flight healthcare facilities ready to help you build a thriving medical practice.

Don't let your USMLE or other medical licensing exam issues delay and frustrate your Kansas Board of Healing Arts licensure. If you have USMLE, NBME, FLEX, or other medical licensing exam issues, you need the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team representation. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Topeka, Lawrence, Shawnee, Lenexa, Manhattan, Salina, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Leawood, Garden City, and across the rest of Kansas. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our strategic and effective representation.

Kansas Medical Practice Rewards

You have made a huge investment preparing to enter your full-time, permanent Kansas medical practice. You rightly anticipate substantial rewards. The state's friendly residents, attractive cities and towns, beautiful plains, gently rolling hills, and productive farmland beckon. You'll find abundant employment opportunities and medical practice support from the state's fine medical care facilities, including the premier University of Kansas Hospital, Stormont Vail Hospital, Wesley Medical Center, Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, Advent Health Shawnee Mission a/k/a Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Overland Park Regional Medical Center, Lawrence Memorial Hospital a/k/a LMH Health, Olathe Medical Center, and Menorah Medical Center. The University of Kansas School of Medicine and the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine offer you ample teaching, research, networking, and continuing education opportunities for your further professional development. Don't let your NBME, USMLE, or other medical licensing exam issues forestall your fruitful Kansas medical practice. Get our skilled and experienced help resolving your licensing exam issues so that you can enjoy your well-earned Kansas medical practice rewards.

Kansas Medical Licensing Authority

Section 65-2801 of the Kansas statutes on the healing arts declares that the practice of medicine in the state is a privilege, not a right, and is thus subject to the state's licensure and regulation. Section 65-2803 of the same state laws makes it unlawful to practice medicine in the state without a Kansas State Board of Healing Arts license. Violations subject the unlicensed practitioner to fines of $1,000 per day and a Kansas level 10 felony, punishable by up to thirteen months imprisonment. Section 65-2807 declares your Board of Healing Arts medical license to be presumptive evidence of your privilege to practice, your proverbial golden ticket into the medical profession. Because these laws require your medical licensure, you must both resolve your USMLE or other medical licensing exam issues and deal diplomatically and effectively with Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials. Our premier attorneys have the skills, reputation, and relationships to help you do so.

Kansas Medical License Application Requirements

Section 65-2808 of the Kansas statutes on the healing arts requires you to complete an application for medical licensure supplied by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts with all required documentation. The same section requires the State Board to keep your application and its contents as a public record for inspection. Applying for your medical license is more than a formality. State Board of Healing Arts officials will scrutinize your application for errors, misrepresentations, and omissions. Your USMLE or other medical licensing exam issues can create risks that you will misstate your exam status or fail to update and correct your exam status once your issues arise. Those and other errors or omissions can lead the State Board of Healing Arts to level credential fraud charges against you and deny your license application. Beware the strict application requirements. Get our help to evaluate, update, and correct your license application and address any State Board of Healing Arts concerns over your application's accuracy.

Kansas Medical Licensure General Requirements

Section 65-2873 of the Kansas statutes on the healing arts states the general requirements for licensure by examination. Those requirements include graduation from an approved medical school program, passing an approved medical licensing exam, and proving your proficiency, fitness, and character to enter medical practice. Section 65-2825 authorizes the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to approve medical school programs from which a candidate for licensure must graduate. State Board Administrative Rule 100-6-3 details the Board's education program requirements, while Rule 100-6-4 details other requirements regarding documentation of your good moral character, English language proficiency, and other fitness. While your USMLE issues may be your primary concern, we can also help you address other general requirements issues.

Kansas Medical Licensing Exam Requirements

Section 65-2824 of the Kansas statutes on the healing arts requires that you apply to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to take your USMLE or other medical licensing exam. You must swear to the accuracy of your exam application information, once again raising the stakes for a potential charge of credential fraud relating to your USMLE or other exam issues. Section 65-2828 expressly authorizes the State Board to designate the required medical licensing exam, establish the passing score, and limit the number of exam attempts. The State Board's Rule 100-7-1 adopts the USMLE for medical doctors and COMLEX-USA for osteopathic physicians while indicating that the State Board may also accept equivalent exams. Rule 100-7-1 further requires you to pass all three step exams in no more than seven cumulative attempts while permitting you to apply to the State Board for additional attempts contingent on proving your medical knowledge, skill, and general proficiency to pass the exam. These exam requirements differ from the attempt limits the exam organizations impose. The USMLE, for example, limits attempts to four.

USMLE Issues Affecting Kansas Licensure

Your USMLE, COMLEX, or other medical licensing exam issues likely fall into one or more of the following six common categories:

1. your qualification for the exam;
2. your exam passage within specified attempt limits;
3. avoiding cheating charges based on your conduct;
4. disqualification for anomalous exam performance;
5. withholding of an invalidated passing exam score; and
6. extenuating circumstances interfering with exam passage.

The following sections discuss each of these six issues while showing how our attorneys can help you address these issues. Keep in mind that we will also communicate with the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to ensure that officials keep your license application open while we address and resolve your exam issues.

Kansas State Board USMLE Qualification Issues

Qualifying for your USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or other medical licensing exam should be the least of your worries. Yet exam qualifications can raise significant issues. You've seen above that you must apply to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts for your medical licensing exam. You must also apply to the USMLE or other exam organizations. The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts and the exam organization coordinate their review and approval of your exam qualifications. That review and approval is much more strict than you might at first imagine. The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts and USMLE use your exam application as a first step in ensuring that they carry out their duties to protect patients and the public from unqualified applicants. See the detailed exam qualification requirements in the USMLE's Bulletin of Information. Those requirements can trigger the following qualifications issues:

• incomplete or unauthenticated documentation;
• errors, misrepresentations, or omissions in application statements;
• statements that contradict documentation;
• medical school issues with academic progress or discipline;
• medical school accreditation or approval issues;
• medical residency program dismissal, non-renewal, or discipline;
• pending criminal charges or criminal conviction history; and
• citizenship or lawful residency documentation issues.

How We Address Exam Qualification Issues:

Our attorneys have substantial skill and experience working with medical school registrars, medical residency program directors, court clerks, immigration officials, and other recordkeepers to obtain appropriate documentation in the proper authenticated form to resolve qualifications issues. Our reputation and relationships help you get the swift and sure response and action you need. If you have pending disciplinary charges in your medical school program or medical residency or unsatisfactory academic progress charges in your medical school program, we can help you invoke school or program procedures to resolve those issues. If, instead, you have issues over your name change, state-issued photo identification, proof of citizenship, or lawful immigration status, we can work with state and federal officials to resolve those issues and secure the appropriate documentation of their resolution. We can also communicate with Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials to ensure that they keep your application file open.

Kansas State Board Exam Attempt Limits

Passing the USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or your other medical licensing exam depends on your diligent studies and the abundant exam preparation resources you likely have available to you. But failing one or more step exams one or more times would not be unusual. Many medical students and graduates do. You've seen above that Kansas State Board of Healing Arts Rule 100-7-1 permits seven cumulative exam attempts, while the USMLE permits up to four attempts on each step exam. Obviously, try and try again, as necessary, with diligent study. But beware of bumping up against the Kansas State Board's seven cumulative attempts limit.

How We Address Exam Attempts Limit Issues:

Fortunately, we can help if you have exhausted exam attempt limits. As indicated briefly above, Kansas State Board of Healing Arts Rule 100-7-1 permits additional exam attempts in certain cases. Under Rule 100-7-1, you must submit “evidence acceptable to the board of further professional study” of the step exam you have not yet passed, “sufficient to substantially improve the applicant's likelihood of completing each USMLE step,” as the State Board determines. Let us help you make that showing with a credible and well-documented presentation of your effective study efforts. We may also be able to gain you an extra attempt based on emergency circumstances interfering with your exam effort. The USMLE has an extenuating circumstances policy for that purpose, available to examinees who suffered an injury, illness, or other emergency at or around a scheduled exam.

Kansas State Board Irregular Behavior Issues

Qualifying for the USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or other medical licensing exam and passing each step of the exam are your primary challenges. But you can also face allegations from exam proctors, test center staff, exam administrators, or even fellow examinees that you cheated on the exam. Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials and exam organization officials take cheating charges most seriously to protect the public against dishonest and unqualified practitioners by maintaining exam confidentiality and integrity. The USMLE Bulletin of Information indicates that its officials will bring irregular behavior charges against examinees attempting to “compromise the validity, integrity, or security” of a step exam. Irregular behavior findings can disqualify you from further attempts at the exam, leading to notice to Kansas State Board officials and denial of your license application. The Bulletin gives these examples of disqualifying irregular behavior:

• exam registration when not eligible;
• having someone else take your exam for you with a false ID;
• securing confidential exam questions before or after the exam;
• sharing confidential exam questions after the exam;
• violating exam rules or instructions;
• disobeying exam proctors or test center staff;
• bringing materials or devices into the exam room;
• removing materials from the exam room;
• lying about your exam status or score to licensing officials or
• obstructing exam misconduct investigators.

How We Address Exam Irregular Behavior Charges:

We can help you address USMLE or other medical licensing exam cheating charges. The USMLE Office of the Secretariat has an adjudication process that we can invoke on your behalf to present your explanation of the allegedly suspicious circumstances and your exonerating evidence. Our appearance on your behalf before USMLE officials can ensure that they do not accept groundless, mistaken, or retaliatory allegations from witnesses lacking first-hand observations or credibility and that they hear and consider your evidence. Don't ignore cheating allegations. Let us help you raise your best defense so that you can obtain your passing medical exam score. We can also let Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials know that we are diligently pursuing your defense so that those officials keep your license application open.

Kansas State Board Anomalous Performance Issues

USMLE, COMLEX-USA, and other exam officials analyze exam answers and scores to ensure that all examinees are both qualified to sit for the exam and are making an earnest attempt to pass the exam. Those officials may construe a very low score, well below the normal distribution of scores, as evidence that you lacked the education to take the exam or that you did not try on the exam and may have been in the exam room for dishonest purposes. The USMLE maintains an anomalous performance policy under which its officials will disqualify the examinee whose answers reflect a lack of education or honest effort. Disqualification for anomalous performance may result in notice to Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials that you cannot take and pass the exam, resulting in a denial of your license application.

How We Address Exam Anomalous Performance:

USMLE officials will not reveal details of your anomalous performance. Doing so could reveal their confidential analysis methods. They will also not offer you the formal adjudication process available to fight cheating charges. But we can still communicate, advocate, and negotiate with exam officials on your behalf to explain your anomalous performance to the extent you are able. You may, for instance, have had a mental lapse, medication reaction, or other emergency interfere with your exam effort. Or you may have misunderstood exam instructions or simply marked your correct answers in an incorrect pattern or manner. Technology could also have been an issue. We can also present evidence of your strong MCAT, medical school exam, and other academic performance, proving your ability to pass the exam in an effort to regain your exam qualification. If USMLE officials notified the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts of your disqualification for anomalous performance, we can also communicate with State Board officials to keep your file open while we contest the anomalous performance charges.

Kansas State Board Invalidated Score Issues

While a very low score can lead to anomalous performance charges, a very high score beyond the normal distribution for high scores can lead to suspicions that you had an undue advantage on the exam. So, too, can a pattern of similar answers and scores be found among several examinees at a single site or in a single administration. USMLE officials can withhold your very high passing score or passing score in answer patterns the same as other examinees, under the organization's invalidated score policy when analysis alerts officials to suspicions. An invalidated score generally means your disqualification from further attempts and may result in notice to Kansas State Board of Healing Arts officials of your exam disqualification.

How We Address Invalidated Score Issues:

We can help you contest an invalidated score by invoking available procedures to present your best explanation for the score. You may have studied especially diligently. You may have had a very high MCAT score, high scores on prior step exams already passed, and a very strong academic record, proving your ability to obtain a very high score. We may also be able to help you get affidavits from your medical professors and other professionals of your good character for effective academic studies, all to show exam officials that they should release your score. We may alternatively be able to give you a retake opportunity under special monitoring to prove your ability to pass with a high score without undue advantage, all while communicating with the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to keep your license application open.

Kansas State Board Response to Exam Issues

The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts may at any time take its own action to deny your license application, no matter the stage of a USMLE investigation or adjudication of the above issues. If the Kansas State Board has already denied your license application, let us help you advocate with the State Board to reopen your application while we diligently pursue your successful resolution of the pending exam issues. We can, in other words, proceed along two tracks, both with USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or other exam officials and with the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. Our attorneys have not only the skills and experience but also the reputation and relationships with licensing officials to gain their trust, respect, and confidence. Our appearance on your behalf may alone cause State Board officials to reopen your license application file.

Kansas Administrative Review Procedures

Don't despair if the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has already denied your license application because of your USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or other exam issues. State Board Administrative Rule 100-19-1 guarantees you the right to a hearing under the state's Administrative Procedures Act of an adverse Kansas State Board of Healing Arts decision. Our attorneys can invoke that right to ensure that we have a full opportunity to present your best defense evidence before an impartial decision maker to gain the reopening of your license application file. If you have already lost your hearing, the state's Administrative Procedures Act provides for limited rights of appeal and judicial review. Our attorneys can help you exhaust these procedures until you achieve your best possible licensing outcome.

Premier USMLE Defense in Kansas

The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Kansas to help you favorably resolve your USMLE, COMLEX-USA, or other medical licensing exam issues. Our attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of medical students and graduates, as well as students and graduates, in other professional programs, both in Kansas and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our premier attorneys.