This is a huge deal. Last year alone, about 50 residents could not start on time due to the idfpr sitting on their hands.
This appears come down to idfpr blaming the isms.
IDFPR statement:
Dear Healthcare Provider:
Please be advised that effective January 15, 2013, the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's Medical Unit ("Department") will reduce its head count from 26 to eight employees. The Department has worked tirelessly to avoid these lay-offs, which will negatively impact the medical profession.
Beginning in the summer of 2012 and continuing through January 8, 2013, the Department repeatedly informed the Illinois State Medical Society ("ISMS") that it required an infusion of $9.6 million to avoid
the significant reduction in personnel. On multiple occasions, the Department informed ISMS of the dire consequences of allowing these layoffs to occur -- delays between 12 and 18 months to process a
medical license and severe constraints to the Department's ability to prosecute physicians who pose a risk to the health and safety of Illinois citizens.
Despite these calamitous consequences, ISMS actively lobbied against a bill to preserve the Department's Medical Unit; the proposed bill would have allocated the required $9.6 million enabling the Medical Unit to maintain its 26 employees. Although the Department will now have significantly less resources, it will continue to prioritize and protect the welfare of the citizens of Illinois to the best of its ability.
Physicians' fees have remained the same since 1987. Since this time, the Department's required costs have approximately doubled. Due to these rising costs, the Department spends approximately $1.8 million more in responsibly administering the mandated duties of the Medical Practice Act than it collects from the licensing fees paid by physicians.
As a direct result of ISMS' actions, the layoffs will occur. Please be further advised that the Department will have one employee to handle all physician licensing requests in Illinois.
Licenses for new physicians and for physicians transferring to Illinois will take between 12 and 18 months to process.
Graduating medical students seeking to match with hospitals in Illinois will experience the same delays.
Currently licensed physicians will need to renew their licenses in 2014, and will experience delays of up to 18 months to renew their license. Physicians' current licenses will almost certainly expire before a renewal can be processed. It is unlawful for anyone to provide medical services without holding a valid medical license.
Physicians may wish to contact their employer, affiliated hospital(s), and insurance company to make the necessary preparations in advance of the lengthy licensing delays. Nurses, physicians' assistants, pharmacists, and other healthcare professional may wish to discuss this situation with any physicians with whom they affiliate, as it may affect their ability to provide services to these physicians.
ISMS statement:
Dear Illinois Colleagues:
Earlier this week, ISMS successfully opposed state legislation backed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR)that would have triggered a HUGE medical license fee increase for physicians in 2014 – we estimate as high as $750 per physician, compared to the current $300. Attempting to shift blame to ISMS, state officials have threatened to lay off all but one state worker in the agency's medical licensing unit and delay license processing for new/transferring physicians and physicians-in-training by between "12 and 18 months."
We want you to know the facts surrounding this issue:
The state's medical licensing and disciplinary functions are covered by a "dedicated" fund underwritten exclusively by the medical license fees we pay.
That fund is nearly empty because prior General Assemblies have transferred almost $9 million of its dedicated resources for other, non-medical uses. None of that money has been restored to the fund. Prior to these diversions, there was enough money in the fund to cover the licensing and disciplinary functions until the 2014 license renewal period.
The "remedy" proposed by IDFPR would have borrowed $9.6 million from the Local Government Tax Fund and mandated payback of that loan in 2014 from the Medical Disciplinary Fund, just as the triennial medical license process begins to replenish our dedicated fund.
Under the IDFPR proposal, physicians' total bill would be the almost $9 million lost to prior sweeps and $9.6 million in payback of borrowed funds – plus monies needed to support the licensing and disciplinary functions over the next three years.
The certain result of all this maneuvering: a steep medical license fee increase in 2014 to cover payback of borrowed funds and future operational needs of the licensing and discipline unit. We estimate a new levy of at least $750 per license, perhaps more.
ISMS strongly opposes any legislation that contains a "payback" provision until monies swept from our fund over the last decade are restored. The Medical Disciplinary Fund cannot continue to be an open checkbook for the state. ISMS did not oppose an alternate proposal for IDFPR funding, which had cleared the Illinois Senate but was not taken up in the House.
This issue will reemerge in the new General Assembly that began yesterday. We must put a stop to the state's "shell game," which is being played at doctors' expense. Please read the ISMS letter to IDFPR and our news statement, and do not hesitate to contact me at
[email protected] for additional information.
Sincerely,
Steven M. Malkin, M.D.
Chair, Board of Trustees
