Physicians assistants leave for Iowa due to licensing wait times in Illinois

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – State lawmakers say physician assistants are leaving for Iowa because it takes so long to get licensed in Illinois.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation leaders discussed audit findings with members of the Legislative Audit Commission at the Illinois Capitol last week.

State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said physician assistants recently told him they were going to Iowa to get licensed, because the process took six months in Illinois.

“That’s six months of lost wages to those individuals. It’s also six months of lost productivity to the state of Illinois. It’s six months of lost tax revenues to the state of Illinois. If they go to Iowa, we’ll never get them back. At the end of the day, it’s six months of less health care to the constituents that we all represent,” Rose said.

State Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, said she also met with the PAs.

“Is there anything we can do to think outside the box, like a temporary license or something that can be issued so we don’t lose this talent?” Manley asked.

IFPR Secretary Mario Treto Jr. said his agency is working to implement a new licensing system.

“The creation of a license for six months might create more work in terms of balancing the implementation of that new system that we might find resolution within those six months,” Treto said.

Treto said he hopes to have the agency’s new system for licensed professionals fully implemented by the end of the year.

Manley wondered how professionals in other states got licenses more quickly.

“Every state is different,” Treto said.

Rose said he understood that Treto inherited a “heck of a mess” when he took over the agency in 2021.

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