The NC Medical Board has adopted administrative rules that set out its expectations for licensees who wish to resume practice. The rules took effect March 1.
It is the NCMB’s position that any physician or physician assistant applying for a license to practice in North Carolina, who has not actively practiced or who has not maintained continued competency, as determined by the Board, for the two-year period immediately preceding the filing of an application, must complete a program of reentry. The purpose of such a program is to demonstrate that the applicant is competent in his or her intended area of practice. The Board adopted a position statement on reentry in 2006 entitled,
Competence and reentry to the active practice of medicine, which states the Board’s expectation for reentry candidates to develop a satisfactory reentry program.
The reentry rules (21 NCAC 32B.1370) standardize the Board’s reentry program by listing specific factors that affect the terms of an individual’s reentry program. These factors include the length of time out of practice, the prior intensity of practice, the skills needed for the intended area of practice, the reason for the interruption in practice, and the licensee’s activities during the interruption in practice, including the amount of practice-relevant CME completed.
The rules also define a reentry program as consisting of a multiphase period of mentoring under a physician approved by the Board. Phases of the program include an observation phase, during which the reentry candidate observes his or her mentor in practice; a phase during which the reentry candidate practices under their mentor’s direct supervision; and a final phase during which the reentry candidate practices under the mentor’s indirect supervision.
Read the rule
