The Medical Board of California has warned physicians and residency program directors not to facilitate the unlicensed practice of medicine. In a newsletter to members, the board said that it has been hearing complaints that physicians are allowing international medical school graduates (IMGs) to work in their offices treating patients, although they are not licensed to do so.
International doctors who are not licensed in California, nor formally enrolled in a postgraduate training program approved by the American Medical Association's Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, may not treat patients in the state. In fact, they are not allowed to moonlight or gain clinical experience by working in a physician's private office or clinic performing any duties other than those routinely done by medical assistants. Nor can they perform as trainees in a residency program or as physician assistants, the newsletter said.
Instead of impressing residency program directors, physicians who write letters of recommendation for unlicensed international med school graduates--extolling their hands-on clinical patient skills--risk being "charged with aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine."
To learn more:
- read the Medical Board of California's newsletter (see p. 5)
- see the American Medical News article