Arkansas Aims To Improve Healthcare Access by Joining Interstate Licensure Compacts

Seeking to improve access to health care and social services in the state, the Arkansas General Assembly approved several bills during the 2025 legislative session that call for Arkansas to join interstate licensure compacts.

Interstate licensure compacts offer expedited licensure processes for professionals who want to practice in multiple states. Those processes vary from one compact to another, but the compacts generally follow one of two models: Either they allow a professional to obtain one multistate license valid for practice in all compact states, as the Nurse Licensure Compact does, or they require a professional to obtain a license for each state in which the professional wishes to practice but provide a streamlined process for doing so, as the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact for physicians does.

Multiple Professions Affected

In this year’s session, Arkansas lawmakers and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved measures requiring the state to join interstate licensure compacts for physicians, physician assistants, dentists and dental hygienists, emergency medical services personnel, massage therapists, dietitians, and social workers. A bill calling for the state to join the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact was withdrawn by the sponsor.

We took an in-depth look at the compact for physicians in a 2024 explainer.

Also enacted this year was Act 968 of 2025, which amends Act 457 of 2023, the Automatic Occupational Licensure for Out-of-State Licensure Act, a law granting automatic occupational licensure to certain professionals licensed in other states who establish residency in Arkansas. Act 968 adds physician assistants to the list of professionals covered by Act 457.

Benefits of Interstate Licensure Compacts

Since January 2016, more than 350 separate pieces of licensure compact legislation have been passed by states, according to the National Center for Interstate Compacts. The center identifies several benefits of interstate licensure compacts on its website, including:

• Practitioners benefit from streamlined licensure requirements and, for some compacts, the opportunity to hold one multistate license valid for practice in all compact states.
• State licensure boards benefit from control over the state practice act and licensure processes, a centralized database of disciplinary action records, authority to require submission to FBI fingerprint-based criminal background checks, and economies of scale due to reduced administrative costs.
• Consumers benefit from a more efficient distribution of services, increased availability of qualified practitioners, and elevated safety standards.

More than one-third of Arkansans live in health professional shortage areas, an issue we explore on our Arkansas Healthcare Workforce topic page.