Rhode Island is joining another interstate medical licensure compact that allows health care workers to practice in multiple states with an expedited licensing process, but it remains to be seen just how effective these agreements are in improving health care and reducing labor shortages in the local industry.
In 2022, Rhode Island became the 39th state to join the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which allows eligible physicians to practice in other member states through just one application, instead of obtaining licenses from each state where they want to practice. The state is also a member of specialty compacts such as the Nursing Licensure Compact and the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact – or PSYPACT – for psychologists.
In June, lawmakers passed legislation so Rhode Island could join interstate compacts for social workers, counselors, and occupational and physical therapists.
Lawmakers and advocates who support the compacts say they increase patients’ access to care and help address staffing shortages by making it easier for health care workers to practice in multiple states.
“It’s very important,” said Rebekah Gewirtz, executive director of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts chapters of the National Association of Social Workers.
Gewirtz says that as mental health care has increasingly moved to telehealth, the compact will improve access to care because social workers will have more flexibility for what states they can treat patients in.
The social worker compact is similar to the Nursing Licensure Compact the state rejoined last year after a six-year hiatus.
So far, the nursing compact has had minimal effects on recruitment at Kent County Memorial Hospital, according to Sherri Sprague, the hospital’s chief nursing officer.
But she expects that to change when neighboring states Massachusetts and Connecticut join. Massachusetts has legislation pending to join the compact while Connecticut has enacted the compact but has yet to implement it.
One benefit, Sprague says, is that the compact has helped reduce the onboarding process for travel nurses and others from out of state from four to six weeks down to one or two.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island hasn’t fully implemented the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact two years after enacting it. Stacy Paterno, executive vice president of the Rhode Island Medical Society, expects it to be up and running in the next several months.
Dr. David Kahn, a Providence-based psychiatrist, is skeptical of the compacts.
For instance, he says, eligible physicians must have a specialty certificate recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties or the American Osteopathic Association’s Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists.
This requirement is restrictive because not every doctor is licensed through these agencies, Khan says. According to the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact’s website, around 80% of physicians in the U.S. meet the criteria for the compact.
But Paterno, who attends the state Board of Medical Licensure meetings, says the compact not only helps Rhode Island physicians practice in more states but it also allows for physicians in other areas to more easily expand their practices into Rhode Island.
Robert Hackey, a professor of health policy and management at Providence College, agrees that the compacts can certainly be a good thing, but there are other factors aside from licensing keeping health care professionals from Rhode Island. Among these is the state’s relatively high cost of living and lower pay for health care workers compared with neighboring states.
