The TMB does not provide a referral service or make recommendations to patient consumers regarding specific health care providers. Here are some tips on locating a new physician:

• Contact your health insurance provider – check with your group or individual health plan or employer’s benefits office. Plans will have a listing of providers who accept your insurance and can offer further guidance.

For physicians who accept Medicare payments, visit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Physician Compare: https://www.medicare.gov/physiciancompare/.

For Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), visit https://hhs.texas.gov/services/health/medicaid-chip.

• Check the Texas Medical Board’s website – licensees of the Medical Board are searchable several ways including by city, zip code and specialty. Visit the following link: http://www.tmb.state.tx.us/page/look-up-a-license.

• Texas Health Compare – an online guide from the Texas Department of Insurance for choosing health plans and providers, available at the following link: http://www.texashealthoptions.com/compare/index.html.

• Other provider directories – another helpful resource is the National Institutes of Health’s MedlinePlus, available at the following link: https://medlineplus.gov/directories.html.

No. Liability claims are heard in civil court. The TMB does not evaluate or give advice regarding civil liability claims. Note: The TMB cannot give legal advice. Please consult an attorney if you have questions regarding liability claims.

Complaints and investigational information received and maintained are not public information, by state law. Any resulting disciplinary orders are public and can be viewed on the physician’s profile. Formal complaints filed by the Board at the State Office of Administrative Hearings are public documents.

Statutory regulations require the TMB to maintain a profile on each licensed physician. This profile information is gathered in conjunction with the license registration and is available to the public through our online verification database. The Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 154.006 requires that information be made available through the physician profile system. In addition to the statutorily required information, the TMB has adopted rules (Chapter 173) regarding the contents of the physician profile system. Due to concern expressed by licensees regarding identity theft and the public disclosure of exact dates of birth, the TMB no longer includes exact dates of birth in our data products, online verification databases or verbal verifications. We do however continue to include birth year.

Yes. Select a license type of “Physician” and a list of Specialties will appear for you to choose from. You can also narrow your search by entering in the city you would prefer.

You may be entering too much information in your search. Try entering in only the last name and first initial, or only the last name and the city where they practice. If you still have issues, please contact us at (512) 305-7010 for a verbal verification.

The “Licensure Status” will show any non-disciplinary limitation on a physician’s license, such as “LUA - Limited to Underserved Area only”. If this area shows “None”, then the physician has no such limitation.

The registration status “Suspended, Active” is a suspended status. A license in this status is not an active license to practice medicine in Texas. However, a licensee with this status has maintained their registration requirements while the license is suspended, and should that suspension be lifted, the license can return to an active status without additional registration requirements.

Mail a written request for records to the physician by certified mail, return receipt requested. This method provides assurance that the request was delivered. State law allows a patient to obtain a copy of their records, or ask that a copy be sent to a new doctor or someone else, such as an insurance company. This law requires a physician to release copies of a patient's medical records (or a narrative summary) if the physician receives written consent from the patient or the minor patient's parent or legal guardian. The physician shall furnish the information within 15 business days after the date of receipt of the request, and reasonable fees for furnishing the information. The reasonable fees shall be paid by the patient or someone on his/her behalf.

Board rules define a reasonable fee for providing paper copies of medical records as no more than $25 for the first twenty pages and $.50 per page for every copy thereafter.  A reasonable fee for providing copies of medical records in electronic format is a charge of no more than: $25 for 500 pages or less and $50 for more than 500 pages.  Also, a reasonable fee of up to $15 may be charged for executing an affidavit, if requested. 

A physician may not charge a fee for a medical or mental health record if the request is related to a benefits or assistance claim based on the patient's disability. 

A reasonable fee for copies of imaging studies shall be no more than $8 per copy of an imaging study.

Unless the billing records are specifically requested, the physician is not required to provide copies of billing records as part of the medical records. A physician may charge separate fees for medical and billing records requested.

Requests for records created and kept by a hospital should be directed to the hospital rather than to the physician. Fees for hospital records differ from those records provided by physicians.

Generally, seven years from the last treatment date.

Put your request in writing and send it to the physician’s address listed on the physician’s Profile on the TMB website. You can also contact the TMB to determine if a custodian of records has been reported. If another physician has taken over the practice, the records may also be available there.

At this time there is no centralized state repository for medical records. Sometimes patients send a written request for records to the doctor’s next of kin or the executor of the doctor’s estate. A patient may also contact the TMB to determine if a custodian of records has been reported. If another physician has taken over the practice, the records may be available there.