Florida Medical License

A Florida medical license costs $350 to apply and $355 for the license itself, and state law gives the Board of Medicine 30 days to review your file. You apply through the MQA portal, clear a fingerprint screening, settle the NICA assessment, then renew every two years with 40 CME hours.

Key Takeaways

• Board fees: $350 application plus $355 initial license, and $250 to NICA for physicians who do not deliver babies
• Renewal: every two years on January 31, $355 on time and $705 after expiry
• CME: 40 hours per biennium, and none of it carries over to the next cycle
• Compact: Florida became the 40th IMLC state in 2024, and 1,465 physicians took a Florida license through it in FY 2024-25
• Verification: the MQA portal is the official record, and medical doctor numbers start with the prefix ME

Florida sits in the middle of the pack on price and near the top on paperwork discipline. Two things catch applicants out, and neither is the fee everyone budgets for: the NICA assessment, which only NICA itself can waive, and the one-year shelf life of an incomplete application. Florida is our home state, so this is the board file our team opens most often, and the pattern rarely changes. Applications stall on documents that never arrived, not on board decisions.

How do you get a Florida medical license, step by step?

You apply online through the MQA Online Services portal, send fingerprints to FDLE through a Livescan provider, have your credentials verified at source, pay the application and license fees, and settle your NICA status. The Board reviews the file, then issues the license within 10 business days once nothing is missing.

1. Pick your route. Licensure by examination sits in section 458.311, Florida Statutes. Physicians already licensed elsewhere usually go through MOBILE endorsement instead, and compact-eligible physicians can go through the IMLC.
2. Order FCVS early. Florida does not require it, but the Board of Medicine warns that a file without a completed FCVS profile can take longer. Diplomas, transcripts, exam scores and the ECFMG certificate get verified at source either way.
3. Apply online and pay $350. The Board says paper applications take longer to arrive and to process. The fee is non-refundable whatever happens next.
4. Get fingerprinted through a Livescan provider. Use the correct ORI number for the Board of Medicine. With the wrong ORI, your FDLE results never reach the board office, and nothing in the portal tells you that.
5. Wait for the deficiency letter. It goes out roughly 30 days after your application lands. Board staff ask applicants not to call before it arrives, because phone time comes out of processing time.
6. Pay the initial license fee and settle NICA. That is $355 for the license, plus $250 or $5,000 to NICA depending on whether you practise obstetrics, or nothing at all if NICA grants you an exemption.
7. Watch the public record. Your number appears in the MQA lookup 24 to 48 hours after issuance, about a week before the paper certificate arrives.

Pro tip: The Board processes applications, mail and email strictly in date order, and states plainly that no file is accelerated at the expense of another. In our experience helping physicians across all 50 states, that leaves two real levers: how complete the packet is on day one, and how fast you answer the deficiency letter. Everything else is queue.

What are the Florida medical license requirements?

Florida licenses physicians through the Board of Medicine, and the base requirements are a recognised medical degree, postgraduate training, a passing national exam score, and a clean regulatory record. Graduates of US allopathic schools need one year of residency. International graduates need ECFMG certification and two years in one specialty.

The endorsement side changed in July 2024. Florida now routes experienced physicians through the MOBILE pathway in section 456.0145, Florida Statutes, so any guide still describing licensure by endorsement under section 458.313 is describing the old world. To qualify you need an active, unencumbered licence in another state, a passing national exam or a recognised national certification, and one of three things: two years of practice in the last four, a board-approved postgraduate programme finished within two years, or a board-approved clinical competency exam passed within one year.

Everyone clears a Livescan background check and meets the financial responsibility rules in section 458.320. Applicants with health, disciplinary or criminal history submit a written explanation plus agency records, and may be called before the Credentials Committee.

Watch out: MOBILE endorsement is stricter than it looks. The statute excludes anyone who has ever been reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, unless the report was successfully appealed or the conduct would not have broken a Florida rule, and anyone disciplined in the past five years. A single old NPDB entry moves you back to the examination route, which is a different application and a different timeline.

How much does a Florida medical license cost?

Board fees for a first Florida licence come to $705, made up of a $350 application fee and a $355 initial licence fee. Most non-obstetric physicians add $250 for the NICA assessment, which brings the realistic total to $955 before Livescan fingerprints and FCVS.

NICA is the piece nobody budgets for. The Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association charges every licensed physician an assessment, and only NICA can grant an exemption, not the board. Physicians who deliver babies pay $5,000. Everyone else pays $250. Two costs sit outside the board schedule: the Livescan scan, priced by the vendor, and the optional $100 dispensing registration.

How does Florida compare to neighboring states?

Florida is the pricier of the three Gulf South options on day one and the middle option over a career. Florida borders only two states, and both charge less to start: the $705 in Florida board fees compares with a $500 application fee in Georgia and about $375 in Alabama, counting the $60 uniform application, $175 board fee, $65 background check and $75 issuance fee. Renewal cycles change the ranking. Florida works out at about $177.50 per year ($355 every two years), Georgia at $115 per year ($230 every two years), and Alabama at $300 per year, because Alabama renews annually rather than biennially. The full picture across every state sits in our ranking of the hardest and easiest states to get licensed in.

How long does a Florida medical license take?

Florida law requires the Board to review a new application within 30 days, and the deficiency letter that follows tells you what is missing. Documents you send later are reviewed within 14 business days of arrival. Once the file is complete, the licence is issued within 10 business days.

The chart shows where the variance lives. Every step the Board controls has a published limit. The middle step, where schools, training programmes and other boards send documents in, has none. That is why two physicians who apply on the same day can finish six weeks apart. MOBILE endorsement is the exception: once every requirement is met, the statute gives the department seven days to issue.

By the numbers: In FY 2024-25, the first full year of Florida participation in the Compact, 1,465 medical doctors and osteopathic physicians took a Florida licence through the IMLC, and MQA issued 8,863 licences across all professions under the new MOBILE pathway. Florida also recorded 1,572,475 licensed practitioners, up 2.3% in a year.

How do you verify or look up a Florida medical license?

To verify a Florida medical license, search the Department of Health MQA portal, the same record the Board itself publishes. You can look up a physician by last name, first name, city, county or license number, and the record returns current licence status, expiration date and any disciplinary action, free.

1. Open MQA Search Services, the official Florida licence lookup.
2. Set Board or Council. Medical doctors sit under Board of Medicine, DOs under Board of Osteopathic Medicine, and out-of-state telehealth registrants have their own entry.
3. Search by name or by number. Licence numbers go in with no spaces and no leading zeros, using the profession prefix: ME for a medical doctor, OS for an osteopathic physician, PA for a physician assistant.
4. Narrow a common surname with city, county or ZIP rather than adding a first name, which is often recorded differently from how the doctor uses it.
5. Read the status field. The filter separates practising statuses (clear, military, obligations, probation) from non-practising ones (null and void, retired, closed).

Two habits save credentialing teams a lot of email. Search the number before the name when you have it, since Florida records physicians under their legal name rather than the one on the badge. And check the Board field before concluding a doctor is unlicensed, because a DO searched under Board of Medicine returns nothing. Spanish-speaking staff searching for verificación de licencia médica reach the same record.

Related lookups run on different systems. Nurses sit on the Florida Board of Nursing side, with multistate RN and LPN licences verified through Nursys. Billing checks usually need the national provider number, which our NPI lookup returns. Out-of-state telehealth physicians appear as registrations, not licences, so they never show under Medical Doctor.

Real scenario: A credentialing coordinator in Tampa checks a locum hospitalist arriving from Atlanta. The name search returns nothing, because the physician is a DO and the search was set to Board of Medicine. Switching the Board field to Osteopathic Medicine returns the record at once, expiry date included.

How do you renew a Florida medical license?

Florida medical licenses renew every two years on January 31, in two groups: Group 1 in even-numbered years and Group 2 in odd-numbered years. Renewing on time costs $355. Renewing after expiry costs $705, and your 40 CME hours have to be reported to CE Broker before the renewal will go through.

The CME mix is set by Rule 64B8-13.005, Florida Administrative Code: 38 general AMA Category 1 hours plus two hours on prevention of medical errors, which is the 40. Physicians registered with the DEA add a two-hour board-approved course on prescribing controlled substances (section 456.0301). A two-hour domestic violence course falls due every third biennium and counts inside the 38 general hours. Before your first renewal you also complete a course on HIV and AIDS.

Renewal also asks something the fee table hides: you must have practised medicine, or served on the active teaching faculty of an accredited medical school, for at least two of the preceding four years. If you have not, the Board requires the SPEX exam before it will renew.

Checklist: before you open the renewal form

• CME reported into CE Broker, since hours never carry over to the next cycle
• Fingerprint retention checked in the Clearinghouse, or a new Livescan booked
• Practitioner profile, workforce survey and financial responsibility form completed
• NICA assessment paid or your exemption confirmed with NICA

Does Florida accept endorsement, the IMLC, or out-of-state telehealth?

Yes to all three. Florida replaced its old endorsement route with the MOBILE pathway in July 2024, joined the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact as the 40th state that same year, and registers out-of-state physicians who only treat Florida patients by telehealth under section 456.47.

The Compact route runs in two halves, and applicants lose weeks by finishing only the first. You apply on the IMLC site, an agreement among more than 40 sovereign states rather than a federal programme, and pay the $700 administrative fee. Then you go back into the Florida MQA portal for step two, or the application is never reviewed. Florida charges $350 for the expedited licence, plus NICA.

Telehealth is the Florida quirk that surprises out-of-state groups. If you never open an office there, you can register instead of licensing. Registration needs an active, unencumbered licence elsewhere, no investigation or discipline in five years, a registered agent in Florida, and liability coverage at Florida levels. Open an office or see one patient in person, and the registration stops covering you. Our physician licensing service handles the full licence instead.

Frequently asked questions

This article provides general guidance only. Physician licensing requirements change frequently and vary by state. Always verify current requirements with the Florida Board of Medicine at flboardofmedicine.gov before submitting your application. Last fact-checked: September 7, 2026.

Written by Medicallicensing Team · Reviewed by David Ivaniuk, CEO Medicallicensing · Last updated: September 7, 2026 · Last fact-checked: September 7, 2026

About the reviewer

David Ivaniuk is the CEO of Medicallicensing, a licensing services firm that has helped physicians, PAs, nurses, and other healthcare professionals navigate state licensing, DEA registration, and payer enrollment across all 50 U.S. states.

References

1. Florida Board of Medicine. Medical Doctor (MD): requirements, process and fees. Retrieved September 7, 2026. flboardofmedicine.gov/medical-doctor.
2. Florida Board of Medicine. Medical Doctor (MD) Renewal: fees and continuing education. Retrieved September 7, 2026. flboardofmedicine.gov/medical-doctor-renewal.
3. Florida Board of Medicine. Licensing: processing times and IMLC. Retrieved September 7, 2026. flboardofmedicine.gov/licensing.
4. Florida Department of Health, MQA. License Verification. Retrieved September 7, 2026. mqa-internet.doh.state.fl.us.
5. Florida Department of Health, MQA. Annual Report FY 2024-25. Retrieved September 7, 2026. MQA Annual Report.
6. Florida Statutes, sections 456.0145, 456.4501, 456.47 and 458.319. Retrieved September 7, 2026. leg.state.fl.us.
7. Florida Administrative Code, Rule 64B8-13.005, continuing education. Retrieved September 7, 2026. flrules.org.
8. Georgia Composite Medical Board. Fee schedule. Retrieved September 7, 2026. medicalboard.georgia.gov.
9. Alabama Board of Medical Examiners. Full license fees. Retrieved September 7, 2026. albme.gov.