Committee passes provisional medical license bill February 25, 2026 Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, speaks Wednesday on Senate Bill 137 during a Senate Health Services Committee meeting. A high-resolution photo can be found here. FRANKFORT — In a bid to lessen Kentucky’s medical do ctor shortage, a bill that received approval Wednesday from the Senate Health Services Committee would eliminate a duplicative residency requirement for international doctors to practice in the state. Senate Bill 137’s sponsor, Committee Chair Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, said the shortage is pronounced in rural communities where 42% of Kentuckians live, but only 17% of the state’s primary care physicians reside. “What we’re attempting to do is address a problem that is serious and will become more serious in the future. It’s projected by 2030 that we’re going to have a shortage of almost 3,000 physicians in the state of Kentucky,” he said. Meredith said the bill isn’t a total solution to the problem, but a big step in the right direction. He said the state’s Medicaid spending has grown from $10 billion in 2017 to more than $20 billion today. A top priority is getting enough practitioners so that people have access to care, he said. Joshua Reynolds, policy analyst for Cicero Action, said that under current law, Kentucky requires international physicians to complete residency in the United States even if they have completed a residency elsewhere. Senate Bill 137 would remove this duplicative requirement, he said. Over the last five years, international medical graduates filled 237 – approximately 12% – of the state’s residency slots, Reynolds said. “Many of these physicians did not need to repeat post graduate education, and allowing these internationally trained physicians who have already completed residency and worked for a number of years in the country of licensing, will allow them to immediately address the physician shortage in Kentucky and open up more of these slots for U.S. medical graduates,” he said. Reynolds said there are many safeguards in the bill to ensure that access to care is increased and quality won’t be decreased. Under SB 137, doctors would have to complete English proficiency requirements, be graduates of a foreign medical school and have completed a foreign residency program or alternatively, graduate from a U.S. medical school and have completed a foreign residency program. They must also have at least five years of work experience as a physician fully licensed in their country of licensing and be in good standing with the licensing authority of that country, he said. Reynolds said candidates need to be certified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, pass exams required by the Kentucky board and have an employment offer from a sponsor. Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, who is a physician, said she has had positive experiences with physicians who were trained outside the United States. “My experience has been very positive at the university, with foreign medical graduates, the majority of whom, that I know personally came from Germany – extremely well trained. They didn’t all do well in this country. I’ll be honest. I think out of the three that I worked with, two of them are no longer here,” she said. Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, voted against the measure, saying she has concerns about the quality of training some physicians might have. She also said there’s the possibility of false licenses. “I have some concerns with this bill based on a perspective that I bring. I lived for four years in a third-world developing country,” she said. She said a national from the foreign country where she lived performed dental work on her, and she subsequently needed to have surgery in the United States. Meredith said he worked with physicians from Pakistan, Canada, Lebanon, India and Iran while working as a hospital chief executive officer. He said the credentialing process is not simple. “And this is radically different from just filling out a job application and wanting to go to work. Credentialing is a very structured process. And bear in mind that no provider wants to expose themself from a professional liability standpoint and they’re not going to take shortcuts. It doesn’t make sense to do that,” he said. Sen. Keturah J. Herron, D-Louisville, voted for the measure and said it’s important to ensure something is built in for implicit bias training or diversity training at medical facilities. Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, who is a physician, voted for the measure and voiced concern that physicians seeking to practice in Kentucky might not actually end up working in health care professional shortage areas. “I think we need to allow the bigger picture in terms of more people in the general assembly to get an opportunity to get a bite of this apple and get comfortable with a bill such as this,” he said. Senate Bill 137 now heads to the full Senate. The post Committee passes provisional medical license bill appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less