Health professionals’ licenses hit snag
Software causes delay in renewals for hundreds.
A glitch with COLUMBUS — a new state software system has caused difficulties for hundreds of professionals seeking to renew their licenses with the State Medical Board of Ohio.
Problems with the Department of Administrative Services’ “OH/ID” system placed atop the state’s eLicense software on Jan. 19 led the medical board to extend license renewals due by Jan. 31 to Feb. 14 while waiving late fees.
“Unfortunately, the roll out of this program has prevented many of of our licensees from renewing on time,” reads a notice on the State Medical Board website. The new overlay system is designed as a “front end” for several state systems to allow users who conduct business with the state to keep the same username and password.
The Administrative Services agency also began operating a call center to respond to concerns, although a redflagged notice on the medical board website warned “high call volume is resulting in hour(s)-long wait times in some cases.”
The notice was removed from the website Tuesday as problems began to ease after software updates, said Tessie Pollock, spokeswoman for the State Medical Board.
Department of Administrative Services officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to emails and telephone calls seeking comment.
The procedure being used to sidestep the problem required certain registration information to be entered, with no payment, followed by an email to a state address to permit the renewal fee to be manually removed from the registration form and a return email with instructions on how to complete license renewal.
The problem affected up to 1,119 physician assistants, anesthesiologist assistants, radiologist assistants, genetic counselors, Oriental medical practitioners and acupuncturists whose licenses were to expire on Jan. 31, but who had not renewed by Jan. 19, Pollock said.
Nearly 700 of the licensees since have succeeded in renewing their licenses, leaving about 420 who have not renewed, but that number could be due largely to those who have moved out of state or changed careers, she said.
Before the new state system was installed in mid-January, Ohio’s 46,000 physicians renewed their licenses last summer with no difficulty through the online eLicense registration system, Pollock said.
An error with the eLicense system on New Year’s Day led to an incorrect email blast to 11,000 advanced-practice nurses that they should stop working because their 2017 license renewals were no longer recognized by the state. A follow-up email on the same day corrected the mistaken notices. The nursing board also experienced online license renewal difficulties last summer.