Traveling across state lines to provide critical healthcare services to patients in need is the bread and butter of any locum tenens provider. While nurses and physicians have benefited from interstate medical licensure compacts that make it easy to get licensed in a new state, physician assistants (PAs) haven’t been so lucky—until now. Just this month, Virginia officially adopted the PA Licensure Compact, activating the agreement among seven states and decreasing the barriers PAs face when they travel and practice. Not sure how the PA licensure compact will affect you? Read on to learn more about its provisions and how other similar programs have fared.
What is the PA Licensure Compact?
The PA licensure compact is an interstate arrangement in which participating states agree to recognize a valid, unencumbered PA license issued by another compact state. The compact allows PAs of a member state to forgo the lengthy and complicated PA licensing process of another compact state, meaning they don’t need an individual license from each state they wish to practice in.
As of early April 2024, the PA licensure compact is currently active in seven states: Delaware, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Washington, Nebraska, and Virginia. While the compact is now active among these states, the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) says it could take anywhere from 18 to 24 months for states to operationalize the compact, meaning PAs must wait until then to take advantage of the new agreement. Any PA who obtains privilege to practice through the compact must adhere to the laws and regulations of the state in which they work.
When did the PA licensure compact go into effect?
The PA licensure compact officially went into effect among seven states on April 4, 2024, when Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed that state’s bill enacting the compact. Virginia was the seventh state in the United States to adopt the compact, which was the threshold required to activate the agreement.
However, the AAPA says that it could take anywhere between 18 and 24 months to operationalize the compact, meaning PAs must wait until states create the process to administer compact privileges.
What are the overall benefits of the PA licensure compact?
The PA licensure compact eliminates many of the barriers PAs face when looking to practice across state lines, leading to increased patient access to high-quality healthcare. Many healthcare facilities across the country are currently struggling with hiring PAs, so now facilities in compact states have a more streamlined option for onboarding high-quality locum tenens PAs quickly and efficiently.
How does the compact affect locum tenens PAs?
For locum tenens PAs in compact states, the licensure compact opens the door to new travel opportunities, greater schedule flexibility, and potentially more money. Since it’s less time consuming and complicated to gain approval to practice in another participating state, PAs can take advantage of the compact to find more work opportunities that meet their personal needs and professional goals instead of being limited to jobs in a select few states.
How is the PA licensure compact similar to the IMLC and NLC?
The PA licensure compact is incredibly similar to the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) and the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), as all three are interstate agreements that allow PAs, physicians, and registered nurses (RNs) in participating states to easily gain privilege to practice in another compact state.
One of the biggest differences between the PA licensure compact and these other compacts are in its size. While the PA licensure compact is currently only active in seven states, the IMLC is currently active in 37 states as well as Washington D.C. and Guam, while the NLC is currently active in 41 jurisdictions.
How effective will the PA licensure compact be?
The PA licensure compact is still in its infancy, so it’s hard to predict exactly how effective it will be in increasing patient access to healthcare. However, if it performs anything like its physician and nurse counterparts, the PA compact should make an immense impact on helping patients get the help they deserve.
Just take the IMLC for example—since the compact began in April 2017, over 97,000 licenses have been issued using the IMLCC process. That’s a lot of doctors moving from state to state to provide care!
The PA licensure compact isn’t enacted in my state. Will it be soon?
The answer to this question isn’t so cut and dry—to become part of the compact, a state’s legislature must adopt PA Compact Model Legislation. Some states have filed legislation to enact the compact, including: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
If your state hasn’t enacted or filed compact legislation, you can let your elected officials know that you’re interested in seeing your state become a member of the PA licensure compact.
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