Pushing through what the Republican sponsor called a “xenophobic virus,” a bill to allow foreign-born doctors to more easily practice in Kentucky passed the Senate on Thursday.
Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, said on the Senate floor that he initially “wasn’t really anxious about running this bill because of all the current rhetoric about immigration” that could present a barrier to the legislation.
“It has become almost a fever pitch in some communities,” he said, pushing back on the rhetoric with anecdotes about how foreign-trained doctors helped make his hospital better.
His Senate Bill 137 would allow internationally trained doctors to practice in Kentucky under a provisional medical license without having to repeat residency if they have a sponsor in an underserved area of the state and pass Kentucky board exams, among other requirements.
The bill, which passed 30-7, is a way to start offsetting Kentucky’s bleeding supply of medical professionals, Meredith said. By allowing foreign trained doctors to practice without repeating residency training — as long as they meet other requirements — Kentucky could also free up residency slots for domestic medical students, he said.
An August 2025 report from the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) found that Kentucky will have a shortage of nearly 3,000 physicians by 2030.
Most — 107 of Kentucky’s 120 counties — are designated as health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). In these areas, there are around 3,500 patients per provider, according to a 2024 analysis from the Cicero Institute.
Meredith, a former hospital CEO, said his own rural hospital was “successful” thanks in part to the facility’s international doctors.
“I had pediatricians from Iran. I had an otolaryngologist and an emergency medicine physician from Canada. From Lebanon, I had a pediatrician (in) hospice. From Pakistan I had pulmonary medicine. From the Philippines: Neurology, obstetric gynecology and an oncologist. From Vietnam, I had an emergency medicine physician and a nephrologist. From South Korea, I had an orthopedic surgeon and an anesthesiologist that was the funniest guy you’ve ever met in your life,” Meredith said. “He kept our medical staff and our hospital in stitches.”
“It not only made my hospital better,” Meredith said, “it made our community better.”
‘The standard is different’
Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, withdrew a floor amendment in which she proposed limiting the applicant pool to doctors from countries that have earned a 90% or higher score on the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index.
Countries that meet that threshold include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Australia and a slew of others. Many that don’t meet it include China, Ukraine, India, Hungary and others.
“The standard is different across the world, and especially in developing nations, not because they’re less than us, but because they don’t necessarily have the resources that we have,” Tichenor said. “America has been so blessed. We have so much available to us, and absolutely people want to come here. They want to come here for a better life, and I think that pathway should be open for them to be able to do that.”
But, she said, “I don’t think that we should look at our medical industry and lower a standard in any way that would potentially open the door for people to practice here who don’t have the same standard of care.”
Tichenor voted against the bill.
Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, also voted against the bill and said the repeat-residency requirement helps prepare incoming doctors for American culture. He also questioned the stability of other countries.
“We are a very stable country, but many of these third world countries are not as stable, and the ones that are qualified today may not be qualified tomorrow, and it could be because of war, it could be because of natural disaster, all sorts of things,” Williams said. “I think it’s entirely unfair, and I think we have other options to improve health care in rural communities, rather than have them be treated by people who have … potentially inadequate residencies (that) has nothing to do (with) where they came from.”
The bill, he said, “opens up the door to somebody whose residency may not have been the best for America.”
Sen. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, voted in favor of the bill but echoed concerns she expressed in committee about a lack of cultural competency for the doctors’ new coworkers.
She said she is concerned by “the rhetoric that we have been seeing in our nation around non-Americans and immigrants. We as people have our own unconscious biases or stereotypes, and I believe that those things influence our thoughts and our behaviors.”
Herron suggested, as she did in committee, that the bill add a training requirement for hospital staff around cultural competence.
“As we continue to move this piece of legislation and other pieces of legislation, I just ask us and encourage us to also think about ensuring that we add some type of cultural competency and diversity training as we welcome folks who are not from our communities into our communities,” Herron said. “I think that that is going to be important for those doctors. I think it’s going to be important for those co-workers or employees … which they’re working with and for the people that they are going to be treating.”
Kentucky can ‘make a dent’
Health care shortages especially hurt rural communities, Meredith said, and will continue to do so. A 2022 report from the University of Kentucky showed most of Kentucky’s doctors — about 75% — practice in urban areas while 25% are in rural areas.
“It’s very easy just to say, ‘well, get in your car and drive to the urban area and see a doctor,’” Meredith said on the Senate floor.
There are “pressures” on rural Kentuckians to “go considerable distance to find basic health care,” Meredith said.
Under the bill’s provisions, foreign physicians sponsored for employment in Kentucky would have to demonstrate English proficiency, have completed medical school and residency, have worked at least five years as a licensed physician and be in good licensing standing in their origin country. The medical practice sponsoring the foreign-trained doctor would also need to be in a medically underserved area of the state.
The doctors would be eligible for a full license after working for three years for their Kentucky sponsor, Meredith said.
Should the legislature make Meredith’s proposal law, Kentucky would join at least 17 other states that have enacted similar changes, according to a 2025 American Medical Association report.
In doing so, Meredith said, “we can make a large dent in the shortage of physicians, particularly in rural Kentucky.”
SB 137 can go to the House for consideration. The 2026 legislative session is 75% through with the final day on April 15.