How to choose where to get licensed

Telehealth has made it possible to provide genetic counseling to patients who are hundreds or thousands of miles away, but counseling across state lines can mean an increase in the number of licenses you need. If you’re looking to start or expand your practice across the nation, where do you begin?

There are many aspects to consider when creating a licensure strategy, we will focus on these four; Cost, Ease, Population, and Verification Fees.

Cost of Applying

Applying to multiple states is not cheap. The cost of applying can be prohibitive, especially if you’re just trying to get your practice off the ground. While many fees can vary depending on your specific situation, such as transcript, fingerprinting, notary and verification costs, the application fee is usually the biggest expense.

5 states with the lowest application fee:

1. Florida: $5

2. Indiana: $50

3. Pennsylvania: $50

4. North Dakota: $50

5. Washington: $52.50

5 states with the highest application fee:

1. Montana: $500

2. Alabama: $400

3. Minnesota: $350

4. Connecticut: $315

5. Oklahoma: $308.80

Ease & Speed of Applying

A cheap application doesn’t mean much if you now have to spend hours of your precious time figuring out and submitting application requirements. Some states have long lists of application requirements which can include verifications from previous employers, letters of recommendations for colleagues, special forms submitted by your graduate school, fingerprint-based background checks, and more. The fewer of these hoops to jump through, the faster your license will be issued and the sooner you can start seeing patients there.

5 states with the most straight-forward application requirements:

1. Oregon

2. Utah

3. Idaho

4. Montana

5. Alabama

5 states with the most complicated application requirements:

1. New Mexico

2. Pennsylvania

3. South Dakota

4. North Dakota

5. Louisiana

Potential Patient Population

With only about 6,000 GCs in the US, a country of over 300 million people, you’re likely to fill a need no matter where you decide to offer services. However, you may want to consider the population size of a state when considering licensure there.

5 states (that require licensure) with the highest population:

1. California: 40,223,504 people

2. Florida: 22,359,251

3. Pennsylvania: 13,092,796

4. Illinois: 12,807,072

5. Ohio: 11,878,330

5 states (that require licensure) with the lowest population:

1. North Dakota: 811,044 people

2. South Dakota: 908,414

3. Delaware: 1,017,551

4. Montana: 1,112,668

5. New Hampshire: 1,395,847

Verification Fees

No matter where you start your licensing journey, it’s also important to keep in mind that applications get more expensive the more licenses you have. Many states require direct verifications of all licenses you hold as part of the application process. That means you’ll have to pay the states where you already hold a license to sent a verification to the state where you are applying. Most states charge for each verification that you request. The more licenses you have, the more in verification fees you’ll pay. Here are the states with the lowest verification fees and the highest.

States with lowest verification fees:

1. No Charge: California, Connecticut, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia

2. Utah ($5 per state)

3. Kentucky ($10 per state)

4. Idaho ($10 per state)

5. New Hampshire ($10 per state, paid via money order)

States with the highest verification fees:

1. Oregon ($50 per request, can include multiple states in one request)

2. New Mexico ($37 per state)

3. Delaware ($35 per state)

4. Georgia ($32 per state)

5. Minnesota ($32 per state)

Once you’ve decided where to get licensed, check out our AutoGen application services to get help with the application process!