Glossary
State Medical Board
The state authority that licenses and disciplines physicians and serves as the primary source for license verification.
A state medical board is the government body responsible for issuing physician licenses, setting practice requirements, and taking disciplinary action when standards are not met. Because the board issues the credential, it is treated as the authoritative origin for confirming that a license is real, active, and free of restrictions. Credentialing teams query the board directly when performing license verification, which is a core part of primary source verification. The board's records also help define a provider's permitted scope of practice within that state.