Medical License Types

Issued by state and local governments, medical licenses allow professional medical practitioners to legally operate. In the United States, types of medical licenses vary by state, though most state license types share some common ground. In addition to type, medical licenses hold statuses that affect their validity. Medical license statuses include active, inactive, suspended, deceased, probate and terminated.

Regular Licenses

• In most U.S. states, regular medical licenses--sometimes dubbed full licenses or M.D. permanent licenses--allow holders to practice medicine independently. In order to hold this license, the medical practitioner must earn continuing medical education--or CME--credits and maintain a malpractice insurance policy. Possession of this license comes with a fee, which varies by state. In special cases, full licenses come with certain situational restrictions.

Temporary License

• In many states, a temporary medical license operates in the same capacities as a regular medical license. Temporary licenses, however, remain valid only for a limited time---six months in some states or up to one year in others. States issue these licenses to visiting physicians from other jurisdictions, substitute physicians licensed in other states and physicians participating in courses of continuing medical education programs. Some states require the holder to meet the statutory requirements for a regular license in order to hold a temporary license. Temporary licenses come with a fee that is usually a fraction of the cost of a full medical license.

  Similarly, emergency licenses allow medical professionals to legally practice for very limited amounts of time, often periods of just a few months.

Limited License

• Often issued to physicians enrolled in post-graduate medical education programs, limited medical licenses allow holders to practice medicine only within the parameters of their current training program. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education---commonly dubbed the ACGME---must accredit these training programs. States generally issue these licenses only during the academic calendar year and renew them annually each year the student license holder is in training. Often, students must have at least one year of AGME accredited post-graduate training to be eligible. Some states refer to these licenses as educational certificates or institutional practice limited licenses. Limited medical licenses usually come with a small fee.

  Another sort of educational license, some states issue faculty licenses to teachers of medicine at state institutions; this type of license limits practice to the institution in question and its affiliated hospitals.