Pa.-based doctors, nurses and physical therapists will soon be able to work in dozens of other states with ease

A doctor, nurse or physical therapist who is licensed in New Jersey will soon be able to work in Pennsylvania and vice versa under an agreement making it easier for local providers to practice across state lines, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration announced this week.

Previously, they had to get licensed by the state — a process that could take months and has long frustrated out-of-state doctors, nurses and physical therapists who wanted to practice in Pennsylvania.

Beginning July 7, Pennsylvania will become a full participant in multistate healthcare compacts for doctors, nurses, and physical therapists, aimed at improving patient care by increasing the pool of providers.

Healthcare professionals in those three fields will be allowed to provide inpatient care or telemedicine in at least 40 other states and U.S. territories now participating in license agreements, or compacts.

The development could benefit hospital networks with locations in multiple states. It will likely also help Pennsylvania alleviate a shortage of bedside medical providers, especially nurses — a problem exacerbated during the pandemic, according to state officials and healthcare experts.

“This is about really leveling the playing field, making it easier for doctors and nurses and physical therapists to serve patients in Pennsylvania,” said Al Schmidt, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of State, which licenses medical professionals.

Pennsylvania lawmakers had authorized joining the three national compacts years ago, but implementation was held up over a complication with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The state wasn’t authorized to get results from the FBI fingerprint database.

That recently changed when the FBI agreed to provide state licensing authorities with results from federal criminal background checks, according to Schmidt.

“We worked very constructively with the FBI — and frankly, pestered them into being as responsive as they could be — to finally get this done after many years of back and forth,” Schmidt said on Tuesday.

A criminal-background check is part of the licensing process, conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police. Come July, Pennsylvania authorities will be able to certify to other states that the FBI has conducted a fingerprint-based background check on doctors, nurses and physical therapists who’ve applied for licenses through the Department of State, Schmidt said.

“This is much more efficient,” Schmidt said. “It will reduce the time for applications to be reviewed and approved and improve the health and safety of patients in Pennsylvania.”

The state currently licenses roughly 300,000 nurses, 65,000 doctors and 17,000 physical therapists.

This week’s announcement drew praise from The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), a statewide advocacy group.

“In the midst of historic and persistent workforce shortages, we need every tool available to attract healthcare providers who will meet Pennsylvania’s growing need for care,” HAP President and CEO Nicole Stallings said in a statement on Monday.

Matthew McHugh, a professor with the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and director for the Center of Health Outcomes & Policy Research, said the full implementation will benefit nurses by increasing job opportunities, particularly in the virtual medical landscape, and in attracting more people to the field.

“It creates more opportunities for things like telehealth and virtual nursing, which are emerging as new models of care,” McHugh said Tuesday. “It’s also much more attractive to newer and younger nurses who are often changing jobs in shorter periods of time.”

In 2016, then-Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation making Pennsylvania part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact for doctors. The state joined the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact in 2020 and the Nurse Licensure Compact in 2021.

The state had partially implemented all three compacts in recent years, though without results from FBI background checks.