Recent blog posts

Pharmacists are on the front line of patient health during a pandemic like COVID-19, and one of the main reasons is that patients, prescribers, and pharmacies do not know how the virus will impact the future of the international supply chain and drug manufacturing. Some believed that allowing patients to ‘stockpile’ larger than usual quantities of their prescription medications could cause drug shortages. Now, the DEA is more concerned with making sure patients have access to medications during the shelter-in-place orders. Although the Illinois…

Do I have to disclose my criminal record to IDFPR? Can my criminal record impact my medical license? The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation can and will find out about your criminal record, whether you are about to submit an application for physician licensure by endorsement or examination, or about to renew your existing medical license, or recently convicted and unsure of your next steps. Will IDFPR and the Illinois Medical Licensing Board or the Illinois Medical Disciplinary Board revoke your license? Will you have…

Social media has seeped its ways into every facet of our lives of the last decade, even our jobs. The question then becomes, how much, if any, should doctors be using their platforms? And if so, how? Some could make the argument that, especially for private practice, it helps grow their customer base. Others would argue that it is not something to be promoted, and the patient’s confidentiality is at risk. The benefits of posting on social media are evident in some respect. Doctors, physicians,…

Primary Care Physicians are becoming increasingly hard to find, and the wait time to see them is getting longer and longer (30% longer between 2014 and 2017, according to Merritt Hawkins). Wait times are up to around 24 days per visit. Even worse, in rural areas primary care physicians are almost becoming non-existent. The question becomes, is it because fewer medical and osteopathic school students want to go into the profession? And if so, why? The demand for these doctors is increasing…

You may have heard that as of January 1, 2018, Illinois veterinarians were required to register with the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP). The obligation to register is mandatory and you can expect your professional license to practice veterinary medicine to be publicly disciplined if you fail to do so. In addition to registering, the law now requires a veterinarian to also consult the PMP “to assess patient access to controlled substances” whenever an initial script is written for any Schedule II narcotic. You…

Can a professional licensed in Illinois be subject to discipline only because the license holder was disciplined in another state? Most likely no, but the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation won’t let that stop them. While the Medical Practice Act authorizes discipline of doctors based on sanctions imposed in another state, that discipline requires analysis beyond the fact that one was disciplined elsewhere. That is, the Illinois statute may authorize discipline based on out-of-state sanctions, but that does not mean that…