Why I Finally Decided to Give Up My Medical License
After 42 years in private practice, it was time to let go
I graduated from medical school in 1974. So I have had a license to practice medicine for 47 years. With my post-graduate training, I have held a continuous license in four states. Alas, you can’t stop time. I retired from active medical practice in 2015. This year I decided it was enough. The total cost of renewing was about $1,000. That included the fee to the state of Florida, continuing medical education courses (CME), and mandatory courses like Medical Errors, Domestic Violence, and Prescribing Controlled Substances. That’s a lot of time and money so that I can prescribe an antibiotic for a friend or Diflucan to treat my wife’s occasional yeast infection.
But not renewing came with a twist. I had to pay $300 not to be active. And that fee recurs every two years. I asked the woman at the Florida Board of Medicine what would happen if I just let it become a delinquent account. She responded by saying I would then be charged $800! So as the old Eagles song said, “You can check in any time you want, but you can’t ever leave.”
It’s not just about the money. I realized that it was closing a door to what I had worked so long and hard to accomplish. Then I remembered a quote from Viktor Frankl’s classic book…
