On December 7, Roger M. Oskvig, M.D., New York State Board of Medicine Chair, presented proposed changes to New York’s requirements for physician licensure to the New York State Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME). The principal change in the Board of Medicine’s proposal is that as of January 1, 2013, all physicians receiving a license in New York would be required to have successfully completed three years of sequential post-graduate training. Under current rules, an international medical graduate must demonstrate that he has completed three years of post-graduate training, but a U.S. medical school graduate must only demonstrate that he has completed at least one year of residency training.

According to Dr. Oskvig, the State Board is considering this change as a means to ensure that inadequately prepared physicians would not be eligible to practice medicine in New York as autonomous practitioners. In order to address concerns raised regarding the ability of post-graduate trainees to issue prescriptions, the State Board of Medicine is also considering the creating a “special resident” license. COGME members generally supported the proposal. The Board of Medicine will continue to gather input from relevant stakeholders and consider modifications to the proposal while remaining on track to meet its January 1, 2013, timeline.

At the meeting, COGME members also heard presentations on what is expected to be included within Federal COGME’s upcoming 20th report, as well as reports from workgroup members regarding the status of various New York initiatives.