Out of the Inbox

Licensure issues keep coming into my life recently. Here’s a recent email I received that offers some food for thought on tricks to get around licensure hassles. Share any tricks you have used!

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Question:

Hi!

I am a recent grad (2013) and have been doing travel PT with my boyfriend for the past year in Wisconsin and Texas. We’re now looking at getting our next license. Since everyone talks about how annoying it is to get a verification sent from each state you’ve ever had your license in to the state you’re applying for, we thought of a better idea… but aren’t sure if it would work and wanted your opinion.

We were thinking that we should apply to about 5 more states at the same time so that we only need verification from Wisconsin & Texas for each of those 5 states, in the end, saving us the hassle of sending 2, and then 3, and then 4, and then 5 verifications to each state we apply for in the future. Would this work?

2nd question: We looked at Texas’ verification request form which allows us to send it to multiple states for one $50 fee. Can we send it to 5, 6, 7 states even if we haven’t applied for those states yet? Then in the next year or so, apply for those states which already have our Texas verification without having to pay another $50 fee?

Not sure if you know the answer to these questions but just thought they were 2 ways to save money with the multiple state license applications and fees that go along with it.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
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Response:

I like the way you’re thinking about licensure – getting all of those done at once by verifying only the 2 current states is a good plan and will definitely save you time and frustration. Although, over time, I don’t think it will save you any money, just because of renewal fees and that sort of thing, but it may be worth it for the trade off in reduced frustration.

I like the idea of getting multiple licenses at once, but I would only do the states you are sure you want to go to at some point. That way, if another state comes up that you want to get a license for, you don’t have to verify licenses you held but never used. Also, check the renewal process on these states ahead of time – check cost, CEU requirements, and timing. By timing, I mean that in some states everybody’s license expires on the same day – i.e. If every license in a state expires on January 1st and you just got your license today, you would have to pay a renewal fee in only 4 months.

As far as the Texas question, I think it’s a great idea to send as many verifications as you can if it’s all covered under one fee. I don’t see a downside. Typically, when a state receives any licensure paperwork on you (like a verification from Texas), they start a file. Some states keep an incomplete file 6 months, some keep it a year, some might keep it longer. You likely won’t have unlimited time to start the licensure process before they discard your verification, but I see no harm in requesting the verifications just in case you do decide to go.

After requesting all your verifications, I would follow up by phone to make sure they have all been sent/received. Also, I would send yours and your boyfriend’s in separate envelopes. In my experience, when my wife and I try to share an envelope, one of our verifications usually gets forgotten and our new license is delayed. Sadly, requests getting lost is the rule rather then the exception.

Hope this helps, I like your thinking!

James

Travel Healthcare Websites

I had something I wanted to blog about, I have totally forgotten what that was. I got on a tear tonight. I’m excited, I’m on fire.

It all started when a friend wrote to see if Kate and I would be at the traveling healthcare conference that’s coming up in October in Vegas. I love the idea of it, I’d love to be a contributing part of it, and I know that no matter what, it’d be a great time.   …in fact, maybe we’ll go.

However, it led me on a little exploration of its organizers and the sites that are similar to HoboHealth. There are more sites than you would think and as best I can tell, HoboHealth is the smallest of these site that will turn up on a few basic google searches. What got me so fired up is that everyone else is fricken SPONSORED! Isn’t the purpose of our sites to help fellow travelers, to advise them in the ways to get the most out of their employment and travel experiences!? Let face it, staffing agencies are financed by us working in whatever job is available and willing to pay for us, not by us waiting around for our perfect assignment. While there are VERY GOOD staffing agencies, there is a direct conflict of interest in them paying us to give good advice!!! A site promising to aide travelers in their decisions cannot be funded by the very entities travelers are doing business with.

I have my own recruiters that I trust greatly, and I have plenty of companies that have failed at the task of holding their travelers’ needs at the center of their business. If you are one of the very few recruiters that works with me, know that Kate and I consider you within our personal circle and have the greatest trust in you. I wish I could plug my friends here, but it undermines the whole point of this website: To help travelers navigate the complicated business of travel PT and to help travelers have positive, well supported assignments in their own paradise.

I’ve spoken with some of my recruiters before about partnering, but never followed through, I never really knew why. I’ve visited sites identical to HoboHealth with 5 times the visitors and wondered how they got all that traffic. Tonight, when I realized those sites are advertising some of the very staffing agencies I despise, I figured out why this site has remained both independent and less visited. Our participants are real travelers just looking for tips from other travelers with no bias. Staffing agencies make their money on the work we do. They should be pleased to have us work for them and should work hard to keep us happy and protected. I love the opportunity here to help other travelers find the same joy in travel physical therapy that my wife and I have.

If you’re a site like HoboHealth without corporate backing, get in touch, let’s help each other help others. If you’re a traveler, ask questions and learn how to travel happily with companies that will support you, not companies only looking to earn their profit off your skilled work. I have found the companies that are willing to support me in my extravagant travels to awesome places with awesome people, I want you to find yours.

Oh man, I’m fired up…. and I finally feel like there’s a purpose to this very time consuming hobby.    🙂    Thanks for reading, I promise more light-hearted travel pictures soon.

 

Legality Schmeegality

I don’t really like blogs that are a pointless rant, so I promise I’ll try to keep this productive and at least a little informative for anyone who hasn’t yet been through  getting a new state license.

Kate and I are currently seeking our Washington and Alaska licenses for some potential work this coming summer. We have 4 licenses in common; I have Illinois and Vermont, and she has Florida, 7 states total. To simplify things, we’ve dropped being current in all but two states, our Home State which is the Vacation State (seems contradictory), and Colorful Colorado. Simplify? Yeah, I thought so, until both Alaska and Washington requested official license verification from every state where I hold or have ever held a license as part of their PT License Application. That’s a spousal-total of 11 licenses that need verifying through mostly snail mail and hand written checks. Who uses mail and checks!?!? Even the USPS has online options so that you don’t have to use the mail!

The Best:

1. Florida – $25 and an online submission will get you verified

2. Colorado – No fee and you may fax your request.

 

The Worst:

1. Hawaii – For only $15 per request you can have a verification sent within 20 days of receipt of your written request via mail.

2. Vermont – Written request. They’ll deposit your check and then have no record of your request.    <– happened to me

3. Illinois – Don’t bother calling, you’ll be on hold for 2 hours.

 

So, back to point, I’ve spent four hours getting these 2 applications together and probably have another 2 hours to go. Most of this time is a result of pre-internet legislation that dictates you do things as you would when mail and and personal checks were pretty much your only options. Part of the reason these laws have persisted is that no one likes to open their practice acts. When a practice act is modified, it offers a chance for other professions and interests to alter the law for their benefit as opposed to the benefit of PTs, PTAs, and patients. HOWEVER! Should you find yourself in a state with an open practice act and the chance to have your voice heard, please beg that licensure be brought into the 21st century, argue against the arbitrary barriers that keep well qualified professionals from practicing in a place that could probably use them, and educate your colleagues on the difficulties these laws place on state employees who must waste their time dealing with all kinds of paperwork for information quickly and easily available on the internet (fsbpt.org).

Really, I’m being a little melodramatic. Getting your license in a new state is generally a matter of paperwork, if your status as a PT/PTA is healthy, there’s no reason you won’t be licensed if you can get the paperwork to the right places in a timely matter. We’ve been licensed in many states now and have a greater burden because of it, if you’ve only worked in one state, it’s pretty straight forward.

Well I have to run, I’ve got some applications to fill out and an currently open Colorado Practice Act to leave my mark on.  🙂

Disparity

We all know about the proven links between socio-economic status and health status, but I’m not sure we REALLY get it.

I finished an assignment in Aspen in late April and was working in rural Maine 7 days later. Aspen boasts the highest realestate prices in the country, Newport, Maine boast a truck stop that sells Fourloco. Making the quick move from a population of patients injured while using $100/day ski tickets to a population consisting primarily of Medicaid recipients whose back is prematurely deteriorating under their own weight has opened my eyes.

We have a huge problem that needs to be the focus of every future health care policy decision made in America. Prevention and early treatment are the answers to these people’s health problems and everyone’s pocket book. Many states’ indigent programs (Medicare as well) greatly restrict what services are covered. Frequently this means a person needs to have developed a problem and allowed it to progress to a more serious status before treatment will be covered. If the less foturnate have their early symptoms treated, they may avoid a more serious progression of their diseases, and we ALL will pay less.

For example: Medicare will not pay for a wheelchair pressure relieving seat cushion for a patient until they have a stage II ulcer (open wound). Rather than buying extra seat cushions early, we end up paying forcushions, the wound care for the ulcers, and a whole host of sequelae that result from the patient’s prolonged immobility. We’re talking TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars per patient. Prevention, people!

The other side of this issue is the lack of health care providers in the poorest of areas. Specialists have long wait times and patients get worse and worse while they wait to be seen. Again, early detection and complete treatment at the first signs of illness have the potential to unload the specialists and allow them to provide better service. Proper inital diagnosis by primary care physicians and treatment that they are appropriately reimbursed for will decrease the financial burden on us all.

I think you get the point. I’d like to say so much more but I’ve broken my own rule of keeping this blog brief. Feel free to comment for further discussion. Below is a related piece I heard on NPR yesterday, it really gets to the point.

NPR – Mississippi Losing the War With Obesity

Healthy travels,

James

James R Spencer, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS

Current assignment: Newport, ME