By Karen Weinstock

Many stories have been brought to our attention in the past few months about foreign medical graduates (FMGs) expressing their interest in practicing as physician assistants (PAs) in the United States. This is due to the fact that many of these foreign doctors have difficulty or are unable to enter into residency programs in the U.S. or obtain medical licenses in the U.S. However, they wish to stay in the healthcare field and use their medical education to help with patient care.

The major association for physician assistants in the US has lobbied extensively for ten years against allowing physicians to get licensed as PAs without having to go through the normal PA educational programs and testing. In their opinion, a medical degree does not qualify a person to practice as a physician assistant and only graduates from a PA educational program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) are eligible to become PAs. Foreign educated PAs from accredited programs abroad must sit and pass the Physician Assistant National Certification Examination (PANCE) that is administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA).

However, different states have been easing their rules and requirements in order to allow foreign doctors to work as PAs, due to the severe shortage of PAs in the nation. Florida legislators, for instance, almost allowed unlicensed physicians who were graduates of foreign medical schools to be able to be certified as physician assistants. This law was repealed later, but was enacted to legalize health care activities performed by a large group of unlicensed physicians in south Florida, intended to help and deal with the shortage of qualified health care providers and affordable care. Since then, many states have been contacted to ease their rules and requirements pertaining to those who already obtained medical degrees to be licensed as PAs.

Foreign PAs who wish to immigrate to the U.S. still need to obtain the VisaScreen certificate in order to practice in the U.S., as well as a PA license (usually obtained after passage of the PA licensing examination). However, the requirements for PAs licensure are much easier than those for medical doctors.