I wanted to give you all an idea of what I’ll be doing over the next ~6 months to obtain a Massachusetts medical license and drug enforcement administration (DEA) certification prior to beginning my critical care fellowship. It’s a necessary but cumbersome (and very expensive) process which requires many months of waiting for approval. I’ll be completing the following steps in order as information from the preceding license is required in subsequent applications.
Massachusetts Medical License
- Completed opioid prescribing courses totalling 3.0 AMA PRA category 1 credits (free)
- Completed Children’s Advocacy Center’s Online Mandated Reporter Training: Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation (free)
- Requested for my AMA physician profile to be sent to the Massachusetts board (free)
- Ordered a self-query profile from the National Practitioner Data Bank ($4)
- Ordered my official USMLE transcript with Step 1, 2 CK, 2 CS, and 3 scores ($70)
- Processing fee for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ($600)
- Updated curriculum vitae (CV)
- My program director will be completing three forms: post-graduate verification, an evaluation form of my performance, and a moral/professional character form.
- Other paperwork: Electronic health records proficiency form, authorization of release of information, medical education verification, criminal offender record information (CORI) acknowledgement form
Following the Board’s approval of my application (up to ~16 weeks later), I’ll receive a wallet-sized license! 🙂
Massachusetts DEA – Controlled Substance Certificate
- Fill out a one page application with another $150 fee from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Fortunately, the processing time for the Massachusetts controlled substance certificate is ~ 3 weeks.
Federal DEA Certificate
- An extensive online application for the federal DEA… with a $731.00 fee!
The processing time is ~2 weeks, but then I’ll spend another ~12 weeks completing credentialing for the Partner’s Healthcare hospitals.
Time to find $1500. And a lot of patience. 😀
