Michigan is a good state in which to practice medicine, with a large and friendly population, leading research hospitals, and a sophisticated and comprehensive healthcare system. You've invested heavily to qualify for a Michigan Board of Medicine license, through the Health Professional Licensing division of the Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs. You are due the substantial reward your enormous investment and great effort deserves. Yet NBME / USMLE issues can frustrate your Michigan Board of Medicine licensure.
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to address and favorably resolve your NBME / USMLE issues, preserving your opportunity for a Michigan Board of Medicine license. The strategic and effective representation of our highly qualified attorneys is available in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Pontiac, Lansing, Dearborn, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Macomb, Troy, Westland, Farmington Hills, Birmingham, Jackson, Cadillac, Traverse City, Flint, Midland, Mt. Pleasant, and across Michigan. Let us preserve and protect your Michigan medical practice and its substantial rewards. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now.
Rewards of Michigan Medical Practice
A successful medical career can depend on access to high quality healthcare facilities with substantial practice, employment, and continuing education opportunities. Michigan offers outstanding hospitals and other medical care facilities including Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak, University of Michigan Medical Center, Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, Henry Ford Hospital, Ascension St. John Hospital, Sparrow Hospital, Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital, Trinity Health Oakland Hospital, and Beaumont Hospital-Troy, among many others. Michigan's many fine cities and towns, with safe and attractive neighborhoods and rich sports, recreation, arts, and cultural scenes, add to your prospects for a good life and medical career. You chose Michigan for your practice base wisely. Let us help you resolve your NBME / USMLE issues to honor and protect your choice.
Michigan Medical Licensing Authority
Michigan's state legislature has adopted a Medical Practice Act similar to acts in other states. Section 333.17021 of the Michigan Medical Practice Act creates the Michigan Board of Medicine to regulate medical practice in the state. The Act's Section 333.17011 requires qualified physicians desiring to practice in the state to first obtain a license from the Michigan Board of Medicine. You must not practice medicine in Michigan without a valid Michigan Board of Medicine license. Section 333.17011 expressly prohibits unlicensed medical practice or the use of the doctor of medicine and m.d. titles without a current license. The Medical Practice Act further authorizes the Michigan Board of Medicine to promulgate licensure rules carrying out its obligations under legislative authority. You must obtain a Michigan Board of Medicine license following its rules and procedures. Let us help you resolve your NBME / USMLE issues so that you qualify to do so.
Michigan Medical License Application Requirements
Michigan Board of Medicine Administrative Rule 338.2423 requires candidates for licensure to submit a completed application form with proof of the candidate's satisfaction of each requirement for licensure. Your statements and representations on the Board of Medicine form must be truthful, accurate, and complete, at the risk of facing credential fraud charges disqualifying you from licensure. Your documentation must also be complete, in the authenticated form Board of Medicine protocols require, and consistent with your statements. Inconsistencies and contradictions can lead to credential fraud charges. Because you face NBME / USMLE issues, your representations as to the status of your medical licensing exam qualification and passage can trigger Board of Medicine scrutiny. Let us help you update and amend your application to ensure that it accurately reflects your NBME / USMLE issues without compromising your application.
Michigan Medical Licensure General Requirements
Michigan Board of Medicine Administrative Rule 338.2423 states the general requirements that candidates for licensure must meet. Those requirements include graduation from an approved medical school, one year of postgraduate medical training, and passing an approved medical licensing exam. Another statute applicable to the health professions, Michigan Compiled Laws Section 338.41, further requires a showing of good moral character without a felony conviction. While your issue may primarily be with qualifying for and passing the required medical licensing exam, we can assist you with other qualification issues including issues showing that your medical school had an approved status throughout your enrollment, you completed the one year of postgraduate training in an approved residency program, you have the requisite good character, and you do not have disqualifying criminal convictions. Let us help you address both your NBME / USMLE issues and any other issues delaying or preventing your Michigan Board of Medicine licensure.
Michigan Medical Licensing Exam Requirements
Michigan Board of Medicine Administrative Rule 338.2423 states that passing all steps of the USMLE satisfies the medical licensing requirement. Rule 338.2423 refers to another Michigan Board of Medicine provision, Rule 338.2431, which further details the Board of Medicine's USMLE requirement. Rule 338.2431 specifies all three USMLE step exams, and adopts as passing scores the scores that the USMLE's sponsoring organization, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), establishes, and adopts the USMLE's four retake attempts limit. Other information indicates that you must pass all three USMLE step exams within seven years of passing the Step 1 exam.
Unlike many other state medical boards, in its administrative rules the Michigan Board of Medicine does not offer the NBME, FLEX, or a combination of the USMLE and those other exams as an alternative for satisfying the medical licensing requirement. You must resolve your USMLE issues to satisfy the Michigan Board of Medicine's stated medical licensing exam requirement.
Potential USMLE Issues Affecting Michigan Medical Licensure
Your USMLE issue is probably not unique, although your circumstances surely differ in material respects from other candidates facing medical licensing exam issues. USMLE policies, rules, and procedures anticipate common issues, likely including the issues you face. USMLE officials enforce exam qualification and security procedures addressing those common issues. They also offer adjudication processes for some of those common issues, while entertaining our communications, advocacy, and negotiation on your behalf for other issues for which they do not advertise a formal adjudication process.
Common and foreseeable issues you may encounter in your USMLE exam administration, with which we can help you through formal or informal USMLE procedures, include: (1) qualifying for the exam and remaining qualified; (2) passing the exam within the permitted retakes; (3) defending irregular behavior charges for alleging cheating; (4) defending disqualification for anomalous performance; (5) overcoming an invalidated score to retake the exam; and (6) relying on extenuating circumstances for additional retakes. Consider each of these six issues and how we can help you address them.
USMLE Qualifying Issues for Michigan Physicians
Qualifying for the NBME / USMLE to obtain Michigan Board of Medicine licensure could present you with special challenges. So, too, could remain qualified through various events as you take each USMLE step exam. USMLE officials have the duty to enforce each exam qualification requirement in the USMLE Bulletin of Information, which effectively constitutes the organization's contract, agreement, or assurance as to terms and conditions. Qualifying initially could be your challenge, or alternatively, your challenge could be maintaining qualification after USMLE scrutiny of your application or as you progress through your medical school and graduate education programs. Disqualifying events could arise at any time, triggering any of the following issues:
- false statements or misleading omissions indicating potential credential fraud on your USMLE application;
- missing, altered, or unauthenticated documentation from unapproved sources or by unapproved means, provided with your USMLE application;
- documentation indicating omissions, contradictions, or inconsistencies in your USMLE application statements, suggesting concealment and credential fraud;
- developments threatening, questioning, or revoking your medical school's accreditation or approval;
- course failures, school leaves or withdrawal, and other academic progress issues in medical school;
- medical school or medical residency program disciplinary charges, findings, and sanctions, or residency program dismissal or nonrenewal;
- failure or inability to provide required documentation of your U.S. citizenship or lawful residency status, or loss of lawful residency status;
- disqualifying criminal conviction, failure to authorize the criminal history check, or failure of a court or other agency to supply the history check in the proper form.
How We Help Address USMLE Qualification Issues
We not only have the skill and experience to help you resolve the above issues but also the professional reputation and relationships to work effectively with the involved officials. Resolving USMLE issues often requires inducing the cooperation and action of medical school, residency, immigration and naturalization, court, USMLE, and other officials. We may, for instance, need to invoke your medical school's procedures to help you address disciplinary or academic progress issues, to obtain an updated or corrected transcript meeting USMLE requirements. We may, on the other hand, need to make court filings and communications to obtain an updated or corrected judgment or order reflecting the dismissal, expungement, pardon, or clarification of potentially disqualifying convictions. Or we may need to help you make immigration and naturalization filings and advocate with those officials for a visa or other indication of lawful residency status. We can also keep Michigan Board of Medicine officials informed of your progress, to keep your license application alive.
Michigan Medical Licensing Exam Attempt Limits
You've seen above that the Michigan Board of Medicine reduces the USMLE's four attempts limit to just three permitted retake attempts for each step exam. Your USMLE issue may involve your multiple failures of a step exam, reaching the retake limit. Step exam failures are foreseeable and common. You are doubtless aware of classmates who failed step exams and had to attempt a retake to pass. USMLE officials plainly anticipate failures, given their offer of frequent retakes. You also have good reason to limit your USMLE preparation time, when prioritizing other pressing studies and responsibilities. But you must not exhaust retake opportunities, lest you imperil your Michigan Board of Medicine licensure.
How We Help with USMLE Retake Limit Issues
We can't take the USMLE step exams for you or offer you any special preparation opportunities. You surely have those preparation offers and resources already available to you. But we may be able to gain you additional retake attempts. The USMLE has an extenuating circumstances policy to account for emergencies that interfere with an examinee's exam performance, such as illness, injury, or illness or injury of a child, spouse, or other family for whom you must care. The USMLE's extenuating circumstances policy can, at USMLE official discretion, not count a missed exam as an attempt and even not count as an attempt an exam you took while promptly realizing you should not have attempted it because of the distraction of the emergency. We can help you invoke that policy and make the convincing showing necessary to gain the additional attempt. We can also keep Michigan Board of Medicine officials informed.
Michigan Physician USMLE Irregular Behavior Issues
Cheating allegations are another risk you face that may delay or frustrate your Michigan Board of Medicine licensure. Exam proctors, test center staff, USMLE officials, and fellow examinees all have obligations to report suspected cheating or other violations of USMLE rules. A cheating allegation does not mean that you did as the report alleges. But it may mean that USMLE officials invoke the organization's irregular behavior policy to disqualify you from the exam and withhold or revoke your passing exam score. The USMLE policy defines irregular behavior as any action that could “compromise [exam] validity, integrity, or security,” giving many irregular behavior examples. Those examples include:
- misrepresentations of exam qualification or altered or falsified qualification documents;
- ineligible exam registration or retake attempts after exam disqualification;
- efforts to have someone take the exam on your behalf or to take the exam for another examinee;
- efforts to gain or share confidential exam questions and answers including recalling exam questions for others after the exam;
- disobeying test center staff or proctors, interfering with their exam administration, or insulting, offending, or harassing them;
- violating exam rules and instructions at the test center site including use or attempted use of unauthorized materials or devices;
- efforts to remove exams from the exam room or photograph or copy exam questions in the exam room;
- falsely telling licensing officials you passed the exam, that you remain qualified after disqualification, or have available retake attempts after exhausting them; or
- failing or refusing to cooperate with USMLE exam investigators, lying to investigators, or interfering with or obstructing investigation.
How We Address USMLE Irregular Behavior Charges
We can help you provide clear, comprehensive, truthful, and accurate information to USMLE investigators who contact you for information and interviews. We can also help you document your answers and explanations. Your notice of irregular behavior charges will also disclose the Office of the USMLE Secretariat's adjudication process. We can invoke that process to formally present your exonerating evidence and explanations at an appropriate conference or hearing and in formal answers and other submissions. Do not despair if you have already lost your hearing. Let us pursue reconsideration under supplemental information and documentation. We may alternatively be able to take an appeal, negotiate special alternative relief through general counsel, or even obtain civil court review and reversal. We can also keep Michigan Board of Medicine officials updated, to keep your license application file open.
Michigan Physician USMLE Anomalous Performance Issues
If your USMLE step exam performance is extremely low or otherwise aberrant, such as if you skipped sections of the exam and failed to answer many questions, you may receive a USMLE notice of anomalous performance. USMLE officials analyze exam scores and response patterns. If your score falls well below the normal distribution, USMLE officials may presume that you lacked the medical education or refused to give reasonable effort, to disqualify you from further attempts. If you lose your ability to take the USMLE, USMLE officials may notify the Michigan Board of Medicine, and the Board may reject your application and close your file.
How We Address USMLE Anomalous Performance
No formal USMLE adjudication process is available for anomalous performance. Adjudication could reveal confidential security analyses and exam questions. We may nonetheless be able to communicate, advocate, and negotiate informally with USMLE officials, sharing your explanation for the anomalous performance if you have one. You may, for instance, have mistakenly skipped exam sections or questions, leaving no answer to score, or may have misrecorded your correct answers so that they appeared incorrect. Whether you know what happened or not, we can also show your satisfactory medical education and good character for complying with exam rules. We may be able to restore your exam qualification so that you can pursue a retake attempt. We can also update Michigan Board of Medicine officials to keep your license application file open.
Michigan Physician USMLE Invalidated Score Issues
A very high score could also trigger USMLE exam issues, delaying or frustrating your Michigan Board of Medicine licensure. USMLE officials enforce an invalidated score policy. If your score far exceeded the normal distribution, and you answered previously used questions correctly but new questions incorrectly in a pattern suggesting that you received information on previously used questions and their answers, then USMLE officials may withhold your passing score and disqualify you from the exam. Scoring too high on the exam shouldn't be a problem but is when combined with a suspicious pattern of responses. USMLE officials may notify Michigan Board of Medicine officials of your exam disqualification, triggering denial of your license application.
How We Address a USMLE Invalidated Score
The Office of the USMLE Secretariat's adjudication process should be available to you after an invalidated score. The process may not reveal the exam questions and the suspicious pattern of your answers, because of exam security and confidentiality. But we may nonetheless be able to present evidence of your good character, good medical education, and exam skills, in ways that convince USMLE officials to restore your exam qualification and even approve and release your passing exam score. We can also communicate these efforts to Michigan Board of Medicine officials to keep your license application file open or to restore it if those officials have already rejected your application and closed your file.
Michigan Medical Board Response to USMLE Issues
You should appreciate that Michigan Board of Medicine officials may act to reject your application and close your file on information from USMLE officials that they have disqualified you from the exam or invalidated or revoked your passing score. Board of Medicine officials have duties to act diligently on applications. They may do so before you have availed yourself of available USMLE review and appeal procedures. Board of Medicine officials may not be aware of your ability and intention to challenge USMLE disqualification.
Our Role Addressing Michigan Medical Board Response
If Michigan Board of Medicine officials reject your license application and close your license application file prematurely, we can help you invoke your right to a hearing of that erroneous decision. You may be able to file a new application after resolving your USMLE issues, but doing so may delay your licensure, cost you additional fees, and subject you to new licensing requirements that you cannot readily fulfill. Let us provide the Board of Medicine with updated information to encourage reopening of your file and, if those communications fail, then invoke the Board's formal hearing procedures.
Michigan Administrative Review Procedures
Section 333.17070 of the Michigan Medical Practice Act promises applicants a hearing after denial of a license application. The Board of Medicine may conduct the hearing or defer to the Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs and its Bureau of Professional Licensing, which hears administrative complaints. Michigan also has an Administrative Procedures Act, MCL 24.201 et seq., with administrative hearing rules for contested cases involving final agency decisions. Let us invoke these hearing opportunities to challenge a Michigan Board of Medicine decision prematurely rejecting your license application.
Premier USMLE Defense in Michigan
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across Michigan to help you resolve your medical licensing matter involving USMLE issues. Our skilled and experienced attorneys have helped hundreds of students, graduates, and other professionals in Michigan and nationwide with their licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our premier attorneys.
