Editorial Policy

1. Our Editorial Mission

The U.S. medical regulation system is fragmented across more than 70 state and territorial medical boards, with separate osteopathic boards in roughly 13 states and a unique structure in New York where physician licensing sits with the State Education Department. Each board runs its own license-verification portal, complaint intake, disciplinary-action database, renewal cycle, CME framework, and telehealth registration system. Patients trying to verify a doctor’s licence often click into the wrong agency’s site; physicians completing endorsement applications get tripped up on state-specific requirements; credentialing teams confuse FSMB DocInfo with a mandatory query (it isn’t — NPDB is). Wrong information can delay care, delay licensure, and expose hospitals to credentialing failures.

Our editorial mission is to publish practical, manually-verified board contacts and step-by-step walkthroughs for every U.S. state, so that the right portal is the first portal. Every page links to the official state board first, then layers in license verification, complaint procedures, disciplinary search, renewal mechanics, telehealth registration, and the IMLC pathway — all from the board’s own published documentation and cross-checked against the FSMB.

2. Quality Standards Every Page Meets

• The state board URL is verified live
• The main and complaint phone numbers have been dial-tested within the last review cycle
• The mailing address is verified against the board’s contact page
• License-verification URL goes directly to the lookup tool
• Complaint-filing portal and downloadable form are linked, with what the board can and cannot investigate
• Disciplinary-action search URL is current
• Renewal cycle and CME requirements reflect current statute
• State telehealth and IMLC participation status is current
• State Medical Practice Act citation is accurate (e.g. CA B&P Code Div 2 Ch 5; TX Occupations Code Title 3 Subtitle B; FL Statutes Ch 458 / 459)
• FCRA non-CRA notice is included on every page
• NPDB credentialing carve-out is included on every state page
• “Last reviewed” date appears on every page

3. Source Hierarchy — Six Tiers

Full hierarchy with named sources, URLs, and how each is used is on the Sources & Methodology page.

4. Verification — Our Seven-Step Process

1. Identify the right authoritative source. We start with the official state board page on the state’s .gov domain (or .org for legally-incorporated independent boards), cross-checked against the FSMB member-board directory at fsmb.org/state-medical-boards.
2. Verify the URL is current. Board websites get redesigned and migrated. We click through every link before publication.
3. Verify the phone numbers. We dial-test main-line and complaint-line phone numbers periodically.
4. Verify the mailing address. Cross-checked against the board’s contact page and against USPS ZIP+4 lookup.
5. Document the license-verification, complaint, and disciplinary-action portals. Each is captured from the board’s own published page.
6. Cross-check the legal framework. State Medical Practice Acts vary; we cite the actual statute and sub-section.
7. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews the page end-to-end before it goes live, including a fresh check on the FCRA non-CRA notice, the NPDB credentialing carve-out, the “not medical advice” framing, and (for separate-DO-board states) the MD/DO board distinction.

5. Update Cycles

6. Corrections Process

1. You report it. Email info@state-medical-board.org with subject “Correction” and the page URL.
2. We acknowledge. Response within seven business days confirms receipt.
3. We verify. An editor goes back to the board’s page or dial-tests the number.
4. We correct. If confirmed, the page is updated. Substantive corrections — wrong phone number, wrong board URL, wrong executive director, wrong CME hours, wrong IMLC status — trigger a published correction note dated and described in plain English.
5. We tell you. The reporter is notified once the correction is live.

Broken phone numbers and license-verification URLs get an expedited 48-hour turnaround because patients miss verification windows and physicians miss application deadlines while a wrong contact is up.

7. Presumption of Innocence — Editorial Position

8. Disciplinary Records — Editorial Position

State boards publish disciplinary actions consistent with state public-records / sunshine laws and federal NPDB reporting framework. Categories typically include reprimand, citation, fine, probation, restriction of practice, suspension, revocation, and voluntary surrender (which often functions as a settled disciplinary action). state-medical-board.org/ links to the official board portal where these records are published — we do not host or republish them. We do not accept advertising or commercial relationships with “disciplinary record removal” services that demand payment for record takedowns. Such operations may themselves violate state consumer-protection law in many jurisdictions.

9. Expungement / Sealed Records — Position

Some states permit expungement, sealing, or removal of older disciplinary actions from the publicly searchable database after a defined period and on conditions (often involving formal petition, board approval, and absence of subsequent action). Other states retain disciplinary records permanently. Where a record has been formally expunged or sealed by the originating board, the board’s portal should reflect that. If a reader notifies us that a record we link to has been sealed by the originating board and the underlying portal still shows it, we encourage the reader to contact the originating board directly and we hold the page until the board updates. We do not host the underlying records.

10. FCRA Compliance Posture

• state-medical-board.org/ is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.
• We do not compile, package, or sell consumer reports for permissible-purpose use
• Every page on the site carries the FCRA non-CRA notice in a visible location
• We do not accept advertising from operations that market physician data for FCRA-prohibited purposes
• For any background-check use case (employment, tenant screening, credit, insurance, education), readers must use a licensed FCRA-compliant CRA

11. NPDB Credentialing Position

• We are not the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and we are not a substitute for an NPDB query
• For hospital credentialing, medical-staff privileging, and other regulated healthcare-entity uses, the federal Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 makes NPDB the mandatory query channel
• Authorised entities must query NPDB directly at npdb.hrsa.gov
• Practitioners can self-query the NPDB for their own report
• Every state page carries the NPDB credentialing carve-out

12. AI Tools and Authorship

• AI tools may be used for first drafts, formatting consistency, and language polish
• Every state walkthrough is run against the live state board portal by a human editor before publication — AI cannot substitute for live verification
• Phone numbers, mailing addresses, statute citations, CME hours, and IMLC status are confirmed against the official source by a human
• AI-generated text that turns out to misstate a procedure is corrected through the standard corrections process
• We do not allow AI to invent board procedures, fabricate phone numbers, generate fictional addresses, describe boards that do not exist, or describe medical conditions, treatments, or diagnoses

13. Editorial Independence

We do not take payment from any state medical board, FSMB, DocInfo, NPDB, OIG, DEA, CMS, AMA, AOA, ABMS, ACGME, ECFMG, NBOME, IMLC, any commercial credentialing operation, any locum tenens agency, any “disciplinary record removal” service, or any other commercial party in exchange for editorial coverage. The site is funded by display advertising on the principle that advertising and editorial are separate functions.

14. Advertising and FTC §255

• Display advertisements are visually distinct from editorial content and labelled where required
• Where any commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed in context per the FTC’s Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255
• Sponsored content, if it ever appears, is clearly identified as paid-for
• We do not accept advertising from “disciplinary record removal” services, FCRA-prohibited background-check products, unlicensed credentialing operations, or operations that conflict with the public-information mission of the site
• We do not insert commercial links above the verified state board contacts on a page; the official source always comes first

15. Sensitive Topics

U.S. medical-board content intersects with several sensitive areas. We try to handle them with care:

• Specific patient cases. We do not name patients or describe identifiable patient encounters even where information appears in publicly-filed administrative records. Editorial discretion overrides public-record availability for individual patient identifiers.
• Physician mental health and substance-use treatment. Physician Health Programs (PHPs) operating in most states provide confidential evaluation and treatment for impairment. We describe the framework at a high level without identifying participants. The state board’s role in PHP referral and discipline is documented per the board’s published guidance.
• Sexual misconduct and “rogue” practitioner cases. We document board action factually, identifying the procedural posture (e.g. “interim suspension,” “formal charges filed,” “consent order entered”) without inflammatory language. We link directly to the official board order rather than summarising.
• Telehealth controlled-substance prescribing. The DEA’s framework for telehealth prescribing of controlled substances continues to evolve following the federal Public Health Emergency expiration. We document current DEA rules with the appropriate Federal Register and DEA-published source.
• Reproductive healthcare. State medical boards’ approach to reproductive-care licensure varies markedly across states. We document the regulatory framework factually, without taking an editorial position on policy.
• Gender-affirming care. Some state boards have issued guidance or restrictions; we document the regulatory framework factually, without taking an editorial position on policy.
• Opioid prescribing and PDMP integration. Each state’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) requirements and mandatory consultation rules are documented from the official source.
• International medical graduates (IMGs). ECFMG certification, USMLE/COMLEX requirements, and state-specific IMG pathways are documented factually without editorial commentary on immigration policy.
• Scope-of-practice contests. Scope-of-practice expansion for advanced practice providers (NPs, PAs, CRNAs) is contested in many states. We document what the law actually is in each state without endorsing any position.

16. Reader Feedback

Substantive feedback — corrections, suggestions, broken-link reports, dial-test failures — is logged and addressed within seven business days, with a 48-hour expedited path for actively-broken contacts. Feedback that is abusive, threatening, or harassing is not engaged with and may be reported under our Terms of Service. We do not engage with disciplinary-removal demands; expungement requests should go to the originating state board.