Rural parts of Arizona could find it easier to get health care services, if a new plan to allow multi-state licensing of doctors is approved.
The idea is for seven states to allow doctors licensed in one of them to easily obtain permission to practice in another.
Kevin Bohnenblust of the Wyoming State Board of Medicine helped design the multi-state system, which he says would be especially helpful in bringing specialists from a big city, to a rural area with a small number of patients.
“They might only have three or four patients, but their services would be critical. What we’re hoping is that, where there are under-served areas, it will give added flexibility," Bohnenblust said
Under the compact, a doctor could pay a fee and go through a fairly simple process to get an additional license, which Bonenblust says is much simpler than getting separate licenses to practice in multiple states, though he says that option would still exist.