Continuing competency requirements can be found in your profession's regulations and in the Continuing Education section under practitioner resources.
Attestation of continuing competency hours is required at the time of renewal for an active license. Falsification on the renewal form is a violation of law and may subject you to disciplinary action.
No. The Board will randomly select licensees for a post-renewal audit. If selected, you would be notified that documentation is required and given a time frame within which to comply.
It is the practitioner's responsibility to maintain the certificates and any other continuing competency forms or records for six years following renewal. Do not send any forms or documents to the Board of Medicine unless requested to do so.
Type 1 hours (at least 30 each biennium) are those that can be documented by an accredited sponsor or organization sanctioned by the profession. If the sponsoring organization does not award a participant with a dated certificate indicating the activity or course taken and the number of hours earned, the practitioner is responsible for obtaining a letter on organizational letterhead verifying the hours and activity. All 60 continuing competency hours each biennium may be Type 1 hours.
Type 2 hours (no more than 30 each biennium) are those earned in self-study, attending professionally related meetings, research and writing for a journal, learning a new procedure, sitting with the hospital ethics panel, etc. They are activities chosen by the practitioner based on assessment of his/her practice. They do not have to be sponsored by an accrediting organization but must be recorded by the practitioner on the form provided by the Board.
Forms and instructions are available on the Forms section of this website, under Continuing Education. You should retain a copy to begin recording your hours. Records may be maintained electronically, but copies of documentation and forms will be necessary if a practitioner is audited following a renewal cycle. Forms may also be copied.
Yes. For example, a pediatrician or a surgeon could receive credit for documented hours sponsored by the American Academy of Family Practice.
Yes. Provided the Board has documented proof that the requirements to obtain the AMA award (or other similar awards) or specialty board certification are equal to or exceed those required for renewal of licensure. It would only be necessary to submit evidence of having such an award or certification.
No. There is an exemption for those persons and for anyone practicing solely without pay in a practice (free clinic, rescue squad, etc.) that is under the direction of a fully licensed physician.
Upon written request from the practitioner explaining the circumstances, the Board may grant an extension or exemption for all or part of the required hours.
The mandatory requirement for 2 hours of opioid continuing education for renewal, reactivation, and reinstatement is no longer required as of July 1, 2022.
You may request an inactive license from the Board, upon a request on the renewal application and submission of the required fee. The holder of an inactive license shall not be required to maintain continuing competency requirements and shall not be entitled to perform any act requiring a license to practice medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry or chiropractic in Virginia.
If you intend to practice at all in Virginia, even on a part-time or non-compensatory basis, you must retain your active license.
An inactive licensee may reactivate his license upon submission of the required application, payment of the difference between the current renewal fee for inactive licensure and the current renewal fee for active licensure, and documentation of having completed continued competency hours equal to the requirement for the number of years, not to exceed four years, in which the license has been inactive.
If a practitioner has not engaged in active practice in his profession for more than four years and wishes to reinstate or reactivate his license, the board may require the practitioner to pass an examination. For the purpose of determining active practice, the practitioner shall provide evidence of at least 640 hours of clinical practice within the four years immediately preceding his application for reinstatement or reactivation.
The Board has moved to paperless licensing, so you will not receive a paper license upon renewal. However, your renewed status will display on the Board's website as soon as your fee is validated. You or any other entity can access the real-time status of your license on License Lookup. If you would like to request reprint, you may order one through the Online Licensing site.
The Board works as efficiently as possible to process applications. The time from filing an application with the Board until the issuance of a license is dependent upon entities over which the Board has no control. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that outside entities send the necessary documentation to the Board. You should not expect the process to take less than 3-4 months, so plan accordingly if you are pursuing a practice position in Virginia.
Allied Professions:
For years, the Virginia Board of Medicine has been leveraging technology and moving towards paperless processes, one of which is the Board’s verification of your professional license. On April 13, 2020, the Board of Medicine switched to digital verification of licenses. The process includes the use of License Lookup and a letter of explanation to be included with your verification to third parties.
License Lookup is the Department of Health Professions system that provides primary-source public licensing and discipline information in real-time, 24 hours a day, free of charge. The information meets the requirements of the Joint Commission. You can print the licensing information and discipline information, if applicable, for scanning and sending to the entity that needs your license verification. A letter of “explanation of process” can be printed and sent with the verification as authentication of the process to the entity.
If you are unable to locate your information on License Lookup, you can email the Board at medbd@dhp.virginia.gov.
MD, DO, PA
If you are an MD, DO, or PA and need a license verification sent to a licensing board in another state or U.S. territory and License Lookup is not a sufficient source, you may go to www.veridoc.org to complete this process. Please do not send forms to the Virginia Board requesting a license verification be sent to another state medical licensing board. All United States medical licensing boards accept VeriDoc license verifications in lieu of the state form.
A name change must be made in writing with a copy of legal documentation of name change. You may submit your request by filling out the Name and Address Change Form. An acknowledgment of the change will be generated. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within three weeks, please contact the board.
The most efficient way to make an address change for your license is by logging into your account on our Online Licensing site.
Address changes may also be made in writing. You may submit your request by filling out the Name and Address Change Form. An acknowledgment of the change will be generated. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your written request within three weeks, please contact the board.
You may mail or fax your request for certification to the board with the educational and examination information necessary to determine eligibility for licensure.
Regulation 18VAC85-20-25 (effective October 19, 2005) specifies that treating or prescribing must be based on a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship, and prescribing must meet the criteria set forth in §54.1-3303 of the Code of Virginia. Those criteria provide that the practitioner shall:
(i) ensure that a medical or drug history is obtained;
(ii) provide information to the patient about the benefits and risks of the drug being prescribed;
(iii) perform or have performed an appropriate examination of the patient, either physically or by the use of instrumentation and diagnostic equipment through which images and medical records may be transmitted electronically; except for medical emergencies, the examination of the patient shall have been performed by the practitioner himself, within the group in which he practices, or by a consulting practitioner prior to issuing a prescription; and
(iv) initiate additional interventions and follow-up care, if necessary, especially if a prescribed drug may have serious side effects.
When treating or prescribing for self or family, the practitioner must maintain a patient record documenting compliance with statutory criteria for a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship.
A practitioner may prescribe Schedule VI controlled substances (as defined in as defined in §54.1-3455 of the Code of Virginia) for him/her self or a family member. A practitioner cannot prescribe a controlled substance to himself or a family member, other than Schedule VI, unless the prescribing occurs in an emergency situation or in isolated settings where there is no other qualified practitioner available to the patient, or it is for a single episode of an acute illness through one prescribed course of medication.
Virginia Code § 32.1-127.1:03 declares that medical records are the "property of the health care entity maintaining them". The law recognizes "an individual’s right of privacy in the content of his medical record" and makes the practitioner responsible for ensuring that the patient's records are only released in accordance with the law.
The definition of "record" is expansive and includes all written, printed or electronically recorded material, maintained by a provider in the course of providing health services to an individual, as well as the substance of any communication between the individual and provider during the course of providing services. It also includes other information acquired by the provider about the patient in connection with the provision of health care services to the patient, including records obtained from or created by another health care provider.
Note: The law does not apply to health care records created in connection with the Workers Compensation Act or to records of minors, except as issues concerning minors' records are specifically addressed in the statute. Virginia Code § 54.1-2969 addresses when a minor is deemed to be an adult for the purpose of accessing or authorizing the disclosure of medical records related to certain medical or health services.
A request for copies of medical records must be in writing, dated and signed by the person making the request, and include a reasonable description of the records sought. If someone is making a request on your behalf, he or she must provide evidence of the authority to receive the records (such as a power of attorney). The provider must accept a photocopy, facsimile, or other copy of the original signed by the requester as if it were an original (Virginia Code § 32.1-127.1:03.
Upon receipt of such a request, the health care provider has 30 days to do one of the following:
§ 32.1-127.1:03 also provides that the patient's physician or clinical psychologist may make a notation in a patient's record that furnishing of the records "would be reasonably likely to endanger the life or physical safety of the individual or another person, or that such health record makes reference to a person other than a health care provider and the access requested would be reasonably likely to cause substantial harm to such referenced person." If a patient's request for his record is denied for this reason, the provider must permit the record to be copied and reviewed by a provider, selected by the patient, of similar background to the individual who made the notation in the chart, and that practitioner may make a judgment as to whether the records should be made available to the patient.
If an individual requests a copy of his health record from a health care entity, the health care entity may impose a reasonable cost-based fee, which shall include only the cost of supplies for and labor of copying the requested information, postage when the individual requests that such information be mailed, and preparation of an explanation or summary of such information as agreed to by the individual. For the purposes of this section, "individual" includes a person with authority to act on behalf of the individual who is the subject of the health record in making decisions related to his health care.
If an attorney or insurer requests a copy in conjunction with civil litigation, the charges are set in § 8.01-413 of the Code of Virginia.
Regulations of the Board (18VAC85-20-26) state that practitioners must maintain a patient record for a minimum of six years following the last patient encounter with the following exceptions:
Practitioners must post information or in some manner inform all patients concerning the time frame for record retention and destruction. Patient records can only be destroyed in a manner that protects patient confidentiality, such as by incineration or shredding.
If you are transferring medical records in conjunction with the sale or closure of your practice, §54.1-2405 of the Code of Virginia states:
“A. No person licensed, registered, or certified by one of the health regulatory boards under the Department shall transfer records pertaining to a current patient in conjunction with the closure, sale or relocation of a professional practice until such person has first attempted to notify the patient of the pending transfer, by mail, at the patient's last known address, and by publishing prior notice in a newspaper of general circulation within the provider's practice area, as specified in § 8.01-324.
The notice shall specify that, at the written request of the patient or an authorized representative, the records or copies will be sent, within a reasonable time, to any other like-regulated provider of the patient's choice or provided to the patient pursuant to § 32.1-127.1:03. The notice shall also disclose whether any charges will be billed by the provider for supplying the patient or the provider chosen by the patient with the originals or copies of the patient's records. Such charges shall not exceed the actual costs of copying and mailing or delivering the records.
B. For the purposes of this section:
"Current patient" means a patient who has had a patient encounter with the provider or his professional practice during the two-year period immediately preceding the date of the record transfer.
"Relocation of a professional practice" means the moving of a practice located in Virginia from the location at which the records are stored at the time of the notice to another practice site that is located more than 30 miles away or to another practice site that is located in another state or the District of Columbia.
Virginia law on advance directives, durable do not resuscitate orders, and related issues may be found in the Health Care Decisions Act. A suggested format for an advance medical directive is found in the law in § 54.1-2984.
Read the letter from the State Health Commissioner and the Board of Medicine's Executive Director on the Completion of Death Certificates.
By law in Virginia, you must complete a death certificate if you are the physician who was in charge of the patient’s care for the illness or condition which resulted in death, unless the death was accepted for investigation by a medical examiner. When an investigation by the medical examiner is required, the medical examiner is required to determine cause of death and to complete the cause of death portion of the death certificate.
Any death involving injury, trauma, poisoning, or deaths that are unexplained, sudden or suspicious in nature should be reported to the medical examiner. Deaths in correctional or state mental health facilities and deaths of persons not under the care of a Virginia physician should also be reported.
If you have been providing medical care for a patient, you are in charge of their care, even if you are not his or her primary care physician. Any physician who provides care of a patient for a significant disease process can be responsible for signing the death certificate. This includes physician specialists who provide direct patient care. Prescription of medication for significant diseases, e.g. diabetes, hypertension, etc. is evidence of care.
If an emergency room physician or a hospitalist pronounces the death of a patient or prescribes medication for a significant disease process, that physician is responsible for signing the death certificate. Virginia law is clear: “the physician last furnishing medical care to the deceased shall prepare and sign the medical certification portion of the death certificate.” 1
1See Code of Virginia § 32.1-263 for the complete law, which is the source for many quotes in this document.
The physician in charge of the patient’s care for the illness or condition which resulted in death is primarily responsible. “In the absence of such physician or with his approval, the certificate may be completed and signed by the following: (i) another physician employed or engaged by the same professional practice; (ii) a physician assistant supervised by such physician; (iii) a nurse practitioner practicing as part of a patient care team; (iv) the chief medical officer or medical director, or his designee, of the institution, hospice, or nursing home in which death occurred; (v) a physician specializing in the delivery of health care to hospitalized or emergency department patients who is employed by or engaged by the facility where the death occurred; (vi) the physician who performed an autopsy upon the decedent; or (vii) an individual to whom the physician has delegated authority to complete and sign the certificate, if such individual has access to the medical history of the case and death is due to natural causes." 1
1See Code of Virginia § 32.1-263 for the complete law, which is the source for many quotes in this document.
Again, Virginia law is clear: if a death is natural, the health care provider should “use his best medical judgment to certify a reasonable cause of death.” 1 An autopsy can be performed, with authorization of the decedent’s next of kin, by any hospital or private pathologist to identify and document disease processes associated with a natural death.
1See Code of Virginia § 32.1-263 for the complete law, which is the source for many quotes in this document.
The health care provider must use his best medical judgment to certify the cause of death as the process most likely to have resulted in death or had the largest contribution to death. If a decision cannot be made, more than one process may be listed as the cause of death. For example, “complications of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and chronic obstruction pulmonary disease” is an acceptable cause of death.
For a natural death, an autopsy can be performed by a pathologist with authorization by the next of kin. Without such authorization, no autopsy can be performed and you must use your best medical judgment to certify the most probable cause of death.
The next of kin may contract with a private pathologist. Hospitals may offer autopsy services as part of their quality assurance or teaching programs.
According to Virginia law, a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant who determines the cause of death in good faith and who signs the death certificate in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct is immune from civil liability.1
1See Code of Virginia § 32.1-263 for the complete law, which is the source for many quotes in this document.
None, according to the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
Yes.
Virginia Board of Medicine
medbd@dhp.virginia.gov | Contact the Board
William L. Harp, MD, Executive Director
John R. Clements, DPM, President