Some truck drivers and motor carriers could suddenly find that the certified medical examiners they have used for required physicals are no longer registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
A recent notice from the FMCSA says medical examiners have until Feb. 23, 2024 to register with Login.gov and update their contact information or else they will be removed from the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
Login.gov is the new, more secure access to the FMCSA portal. The agency began requiring motor carriers to register with Login.gov at the start of 2024 but the transition for the medical community got underway in 2022. According to FMCSA, there are 92,625 medical examiners listed in the registry, of which approximately 76,898 are accessing their National Registry account through Login.gov. Despite phone calls and emails to the contact information shown in the National Registry, FMCSA has been unable to reach the remaining 15,727 medical examiners, or nearly 17%.
Motor carriers and truck drivers are required to use certified medical examiners for driver physical examinations. Medical examiners who do not fully register with Login.gov by Feb. 23 will be dropped from the National Registry and will be unable to submit or retrieve driver data. In other words, they will be unable to perform the functions of a certified medical examiner.
How do you know whether your medical examiner is current with the National Registry? FMCSA assures there will not be a general shortage of medical examiners and that the geographical availability of medical examiners will not be impacted by the decertification of up to 15,727 current medical examiners. But FMCSA does not know the individual relationship between a truck driver and a medical examiner and so encourages motor carriers and truck drivers to use the National Registry website public search feature to verify that a medical examiner is certified. Note: a medical examiner’s name will remain on the registry for three years after removal, with an indicator of the date the medical examiner was decertified.
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