NBME/USMLE Defense for New Mexico Medical Students and Graduates

After all the effort you've made to complete your medical education and training, you have earned the opportunity to pursue a New Mexico medical practice with a very reasonable expectation of substantial rewards. New Mexico has a climate, culture, economy, population, healthcare systems, and facilities to build strong medical practices. New Mexico also has one of the nation's worst doctor shortages and an aging physician population, 40% of whom are over sixty years old. The New Mexico Medical Board encourages you to apply for a license. But you'll have to resolve your NBME, USMLE, FLEX, or other medical licensing exam issues to gain a license. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team representation. Our attorneys are available in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Roswell, Farmington, Hobbs, Clovis, South Valley, Carlsbad, Alamogordo, Gallup, and across the rest of New Mexico to help you resolve your licensing issues.

New Mexico Medical Practice Rewards

New Mexico is more than just a beautiful Southwest state in which to establish a medical practice. You can also expect substantial financial and professional rewards from a practice built around the state's sophisticated healthcare systems and fine medical facilities. The state's larger healthcare facilities and systems include Presbyterian Hospital, University of New Mexico Hospital, Lovelace Medical Center, Memorial Medical Center, CHRISTUS St Vincent Regional Medical Center, San Juan Regional Medical Center, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, MountainView Regional Medical Center, Lovelace Women's Hospital, Nor-Lea Hospital District, and Eastern New Mexico Medical Center. The University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine at New Mexico State University together offer research, networking, and continuing medical education opportunities. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are here to help you overcome your medical licensing exam issues and gain access to these substantial rewards.

New Mexico Medical Licensing Authority

You must first qualify for a license from the New Mexico Medical Board, which means you must first resolve your medical licensing exam issues. Section 61-6-2 of New Mexico's Medical Practice Act creates the New Mexico Medical Board to regulate medical practice in the state. You must deal with the Medical Board to get your license. Section 61-6-5 of the Medical Practice Act authorizes the Medical Board to grant, deny, and discipline licenses. Section 61-6-20 makes unlicensed practice a New Mexico fourth-degree felony crime, punishable by up to eighteen months imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for each separate violation. Practicing without a license is also grounds in itself to deny your license application as a violation of the New Mexico Medical Practice Act. You must not practice medicine without first resolving your medical licensing exam issues. We can help you do so.

New Mexico License Application Requirements

Your first step in obtaining your medical license involves your New Mexico Medical Board application. Section 61-6-11 of the New Mexico Medical Practice Act requires that you apply to the New Mexico Medical Board and pay its fees to obtain your medical license. Take your medical license application seriously, especially when it comes to disclosing your medical licensing issues and exam qualification status accurately and completely. Misrepresentations on your license application, misleading omissions from your application, or other efforts to subvert the licensing process violate Medical Practice Act Section 61-6-15 and are grounds alone for refusing you a license. Let us help you review, update, and correct your license application to accurately reflect your medical licensing exam issues as they arise, change, and resolve. Concealing your medical licensing exam issues can complicate, delay, and frustrate your medical license application. Instead, let us help you resolve your issues.

New Mexico Medical Licensure General Requirements

Section 61-6-11 of the New Mexico Medical Practice Act lists the state's general requirements for medical licensure. Those requirements include that you must prove your good moral character, show that you have graduated from an approved medical school program, complete two years of an approved postgraduate medical residency, and pass an approved medical licensing exam. Section 61-6-15 further authorizes the Medical Board to refuse a license to a physician who has committed unprofessional conduct in any one of a long list of forms. The New Mexico Medical Board's application process will require disclosures and authorizations, enabling Board officials to investigate your background for any of those wrongs on which the Board would deny your license. Your medical licensing exam issues are not the only issues that could delay and prevent your licensure. Our attorneys are available to help you resolve not only your medical licensing exam issues but also other issues that may arise out of your licensing process. Those issues may include criminal history, indications of substance abuse, addiction, or dependency, indications of mental or physical unfitness, and professional incompetence or unprofessionalism. Let us help you address these and other issues.

New Mexico Medical Licensing Exam Requirements

As you've just seen, Section 61-6-11 of the New Mexico Medical Practice Act requires that you pass an approved medical licensing exam. The Medical Practice Act does not specify the approved exams; instead, it authorizes the New Mexico Medical Board to promulgate an administrative rule on that subject. New Mexico Medical Board Rule Part 3 once approved the USMLE, NBME, and FLEX exams or a combination of those exams but currently approves only the USMLE plus the LMCC for Canadian medical students and graduates. Medical Board Rule Part 3 also sets forth the required 75 passing score on each USMLE step exam. Medical Board Rule Part 3 also limits you to six attempts on each USMLE step exam, which is a greater number of attempts than the USMLE's own four attempts limit. Under Medical Board Rule Part 3, you must also pass all USMLE step exams within seven years of your first test administration, although the rule offers relief from the seven-year requirement on certain conditions.

New Mexico Medical Licensing Exam Issues

The above New Mexico Medical Board licensing exam requirements can trigger several issues. Your issues are likely unique in certain respects. But your issues are also probably like other common medical licensing exam issues. Those issues generally fall into these six categories:

1. meeting USMLE exam qualifications to register for the exam;
2. passing all three USMLE exam steps within attempt limits;
3. facing allegations that you cheated on a USMLE step exam;
4. facing disqualification after your anomalous exam performance;
5. withholding of an invalidated exam score; or
6. proving extenuating circumstances for extra USMLE exam attempts.

Resolving issues in each of these categories requires invoking different USMLE procedures, taking different actions, and presenting different arguments and evidence. Our attorneys know those procedures, actions, and arguments. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Get our skilled and experienced representation. The following sections address each of these categories of issues.

New Mexico Licensing Exam Qualification Issues

Qualifying for the USMLE and remaining qualified may have proven more difficult than you anticipated. You've seen above the challenge of applying for a New Mexico Medical Board license, and the rigor Board officials may exercise in reviewing your license application. USMLE officials may exercise the same scrutiny over your exam application. You have two applications to make, not just one for the Medical Board and one for the USMLE. The USMLE's Bulletin of Information lists exam qualification requirements. Your USMLE application could trigger any of the following issues, leading to problems with your New Mexico Medical Board license application:

• inaccuracies or inconsistencies in your USMLE application statements;
• incomplete or unauthenticated documentation supplied with your USMLE application;
• contradictory USMLE application statements and documentation;
• records of medical school unsatisfactory academic progress or disciplinary charges;
• problems with your medical school's accreditation status;
• medical residency program unprofessionalism, non-renewal, or disciplinary charges;
• criminal conviction history, domestic violence restraint, or substance abuse indications; or
• inadequate documentation of your citizenship or lawful residency status.

How We Address Exam Qualification Issues:

Our attorneys know how to invoke medical school and medical residency procedures to resolve pending academic progress issues or disciplinary charges. We can advocate and negotiate for resolution, present your exonerating and mitigating evidence at any necessary hearings, and take formal appeals or make special appeals for alternative relief. If, instead, your issues are with inadequate documentation rather than unresolved issues, our reputation, relationships, and skills will generally gain prompt attention and action from medical school deans and registrars, as well as medical residency supervisors and directors. We can take the same actions to address court administrators and clerks or immigration officials to get updated and corrected documentation on criminal history and citizenship or residency status. We can simultaneously keep New Mexico Medical Board officials informed of our progress so that they can keep your license file open.

New Mexico Medical Licensing Exam Attempt Limits

Medical students and graduates can have problems passing one or more USMLE step exams. No shame. That's why USMLE and New Mexico Medical Board officials permit multiple attempts at each step of the exam. You've seen above that New Mexico Medical Board Rule Part 3 grants you more attempts at each USMLE step exam, six attempts, than the USMLE's own four attempts limit for each step exam. You may, though, run up against one of the two attempt limits. You first face USMLE refusal to authorize another attempt beyond its four attempts limit. You may then face the New Mexico Medical Board denial of your license application for either suffering USMLE disqualification for exhausting the USMLE four attempts limit or for exhausting the Board's six attempts limit.

How We Address Exam Attempt Limits:

We cannot help you pass each USMLE step exam directly. You should have abundant resources and aids to help you do so. Yet our attorneys may be able to gain you an extra attempt or attempts at a step exam that has proven a particular problem for you to pass. We can, for instance, invoke the USMLE's extenuating circumstances policy if you had an emergency of some kind interfere with an exam attempt. You may, for example, have suffered a sudden illness or traumatic injury or the severe illness, injury, or even death of a close family member. Your emergency may have caused you to miss a scheduled exam counting against your attempts limit. Or you may have made it to the exam but abandoned your attempt after realizing that you were in no condition to continue. The USMLE extenuating circumstances policy grants you an extra attempt on a convincing and well-documented showing of your grounds. Let us help you make that showing, either to the USMLE, the New Mexico Medical Board, or both, as necessary.

New Mexico Licensing Exam Irregular Behavior Issues

Cheating allegations are another major category for potential issues. You surely don't intend to cheat. But exam proctors and administrators may misunderstand your intentions and actions or misidentify you as another examinee who did cheat. Fellow examinees, who also generally have a duty to report suspected cheating, may do likewise. They may also report you as a cheater to cover up their own wrong or to retaliate against you for other reasons. Cheating charges can, of course, be very concerning, as USMLE officials and New Mexico Medical Board officials will take them very seriously as an indication of your poor character for dishonesty and unfitness for medical practice. The USMLE's irregular behavior policy authorizes USMLE officials to disqualify you from the exam and notify New Mexico Medical Board officials of your disqualification for cheating. You could face cheating charges for any of these suspected actions listed in the USMLE Bulletin of Information:

• refusing to cooperate with or openly obstructing USMLE exam investigators;
• asking an impostor to take your exam or offering to act as an imposter for another examinee;
• violating instructions or directions of an exam proctor or offending or harassing a proctor;
• providing secret assistance to another examinee during an exam or seeking assistance from another examinee;
• bringing notes or devices into the exam room with the intention of cheating;
• removing materials from the exam room or reproducing, sharing, or soliciting confidential exam questions outside the exam room;
• telling licensing officials you passed the exam when you instead failed or suffered disqualification; and
• attempting to register for an exam after disqualification or when otherwise ineligible.

How We Address Irregular Behavior Charges:

Examinees facing cheating charges generally receive notice from the USMLE Office of the Secretariat offering an adjudication process to challenge the charges. We can invoke that adjudication process through which to present your exonerating evidence and explanation for how the allegations arose. We can also challenge the complaining witness or witnesses for lack of credibility, lack of a factual basis, or bias, motive, or interest. We may also be able to show evidence of your strong academic record and good moral character, contradicting inferences of dishonesty. These and other actions may gain the release of your withheld passing score or your requalification for another attempt under monitoring. We can also inform the New Mexico Medical Board of our availing efforts so that they can keep your license application file active.

New Mexico Anomalous Exam Performance Issues

Your actions during or outside of the exam are not the only things that could trigger suspicions of cheating or other unfitness for a USMLE step exam. USMLE officials also analyze examinee scores and answers, looking for anomalies. USMLE officials enforce an anomalous performance policy to disqualify examinees whose very low scores and failure to otherwise demonstrate earnest effort in answering all questions suggest a lack of medical education. USMLE officials may also apply the policy where the examinee's failure to make credible attempts on all portions of the exam suggests that the examinee entered the exam room with the intent not to pass the exam but to aid another examinee or to record questions for outside distribution. Anomalous performance disqualification would likely trigger the New Mexico Medical Board denial of your license application.

How We Address Anomalous Exam Performance:

You need us to show two things to successfully defend your anomalous performance disqualification: (1) that you have the medical education and training, and good character and discipline, to pass the USMLE step exam on which you performed so poorly; and (2) your credible reason for your especially poor performance. As to the former, we may be able to present evidence of your strong MCAT score, medical school exam performance, and medical school grades, including attestations of your medical professors as to your character and capacity for medical studies. As to the latter, we may be able to show that you had an illness, medical reaction, or mental lapse, misunderstood exam format or instructions, inadvertently skipped exam sections, or had technology issues. We can also keep New Mexico Medical Board officials informed.

New Mexico Invalidated Exam Score Issues

While the USMLE maintains its anomalous performance policy to address very low scores, it also enforces an invalidated score policy for very high scores, so high as to suggest prior access to exam questions and answers or another undue advantage. Analysis of multiple examinees' high scores at a single test center site may alternatively show identical answers, indicating a mutual undue advantage such as group access to questions and answers before the exam. The USMLE's invalidated score policy authorizes exam officials to withhold your passing score and disqualify you from further attempts, triggering the New Mexico Medical Board denial of your license application.

How We Address Invalidated Exam Scores:

While the USMLE does not offer a formal adjudication process for invalidated exam scores, our attorneys can work to open informal channels through which to present evidence of your capacity for acing standardized exams. To overcome an inference of cheating from your very high exam score, we may be able to show your similarly high MCAT score, medical school grades, and medical school exam performance. We may also be able to present evidence of your good character and honesty from medical professors and other mentors, all while keeping New Mexico Medical Board officials informed to keep your license application open.

New Mexico Board of Medicine Response to Exam Issues

The New Mexico Medical Board has its own procedures and timelines for processing license applications. In the ordinary run of things, the Medical Board would act on your application within a specified time, closing and denying your application if you have not met all requirements, requiring you to reapply under the shadow of the prior denial. Our attorneys have the reputation, relationships, and skill to gain the trust and confidence of Medical Board officials that we are diligently pursuing resolution of your medical licensing exam issues. We may well be able to convince Board officials to forgo their protocols and to keep your license application open, saving you months or even a year or more of reapplying and overcoming a prior license application denial.

New Mexico Administrative Review Procedures

You generally have a right to constitutional due process to protect your interest in a New Mexico medical license and practice. New Mexico Medical Board Rule Part 6 guarantees you protective procedures, including a hearing before a review committee, for contesting an adverse Medical Board decision on your license application. The Medical Board rule expressly refers to and incorporates the additional protections of the state's Uniform Licensing Act. We can invoke your hearing rights to correct an erroneous denial. If you have already lost your hearing, we can pursue your appeal rights and right to limited judicial review.

Premier New Mexico Medical Licensing Exam Defense

The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available across New Mexico to address and resolve your medical licensing exam issues and qualify for New Mexico Medical Board licensure. Our attorneys help hundreds of medical students and graduates, as well as students and graduates of other professional programs, across New Mexico and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our skilled attorney representation.