Medical Licensing

How to Verify a Physician License in Ohio

Ohio has made it available for everyone to verify the licenses of healthcare professionals. This includes physicians, physician assistants, nurses, specialists, and anyone involved in the healthcare industry.

The state has also provided a much easier, faster, and more reliable interface compared to other states.

In this guide, we’ll show you how easy the physician license verification process in Ohio is.

Key Takeaways

Ohio’s platform allows easy verification of healthcare licenses for all professions.
Users can search licenses using number, name, city, or specialty details.
Verification details include expiration, status, and any disciplinary actions on record.
Service is free, public, and provides comprehensive license information statewide.

How to Verify a License in Ohio

Ohio has one of the most flexible license verification platforms, allowing anyone in the United States to look up any license across all professions—all from a single page. It also provides various search methods to help you look up any license with the least bit of information.

Here’s how you can verify a physician’s license in Ohio:

Step 1: Access the E-license Website

All license verification processes across all states have gone paperless. Accordingly, all states have their respective websites dedicated to the procedure. However, some states’ websites are unavailable for people outside the United States; Ohio is among these states.

Luckily, you can easily fix that by using a VPN to browse the official government website. If you don’t have access to a VPN (some countries make that extremely difficult), you can skip immediately to the verification page using this link. This page doesn’t require a VPN.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, verify that you’re not a robot, press continue, and you’ll be taken to the verification page, which looks like this:

Source: Elicense.Ohio.Gov

Step 2: Enter the License Number

The fastest and easiest way to look up a physician is through their license number. You can legally ask physicians for their license number, and they’re legally obliged to give it to you.

Enter the license or credential number in the last search box and click the search button.

Step 3: Enter the Available Information

If you don’t have the license number, you have other options you can use instead, like the name, city, county, and license type.

Let’s start with the name. In most other states, you must have the first name and at least two letters of the second or last name to find a physician. That’s not the case here. You can enter the first name only and start your search immediately without filling any other boxes.

However, as you might expect, if you do this you’ll have to go through a long list of people, some of which might not even be physicians.

To narrow the list down, start by selecting the medical board from the drop-down list. This should restrict your results to physicians only. If you can also specify the city and the county, you’ll often end up with 20–30 results to choose from, which isn’t bad considering that you only have the first name.

You can also write down the last name, middle name, and even the alias (if the physician is working under a different name rather than their birth one).

What Kind of Information Will You Find When You Verify a License?

Different states provide various amounts of information on their healthcare providers. Some of them may provide less information than others.

However, you will always find the physician’s name, license expiration date, license status, and any disciplinary actions taken against them by the medical board.

In Ohio’s case, you’ll find the aforementioned information plus the following:

License sub-status
Sub-category
License number
City
State
Specialties

For illustration purposes, here’s the results page for a physician named Macey Alexandra James:

Source: Elicense.Ohio.Gov

Note: The above format is from the print-friendly PDF that you can access by clicking the “Printer-friendly version” on the top right.

Related: Ohio License Board

FAQs

Is License Verification Free?

Yes, the State Medical Board made license verification free and public to anyone. Any website that claims otherwise is a scam.

Do All States Allow Citizens to Verify Physician License?

Yes, everyone is allowed to verify any license at any given time. However, not all states allow you to verify all licenses from one single interface, as Ohio does.

Is Ohio Part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact?

Yes, Ohio is part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC). Physicians who meet the necessary qualifications can obtain a medical license in Ohio without going through the traditional licensing process.

Final Words

Ohio medical license verification benefits everyone. It shows people that their doctors are to be trusted, and it incentivizes physicians to do their best to keep their licenses.

Physician licensing may be difficult, but continuing medical education to be eligible for the renewal is as difficult, if not more. You’ll need a lot of hard work as a physician to keep this up.

If you’re a physician who needs to succeed not only medically but also financially, we invite you to collaborate with Physicians Thrive. We can take you all the way from the initial medical license application (including the whole licensure process) to retirement planning.