The FAA says those who have their medicals denied under a new deferral processing policy will not necessarily be disqualified from obtaining medical certification through BasicMed. Effective Jan.1, anyone whose medical deferral is not accompanied by all the necessary paperwork and reports will have their medical denied. A medical denial makes a pilot ineligible for BasicMed and Sport Pilot. But under the new policy, affected pilots will be able to apply for reconsideration of the denial and if that's approved they will again be eligible for BasicMed and Sport Pilot. Here's the FAA's statement:
Here’s the real kicker: The FAA’s idea of “streamlining” is just more bureaucracy for pilots. They’re now doubling the trouble if you mess up your paperwork. First, you get a denial that tanks your BasicMed and Sport Pilot eligibility. Then, you have to do a bunch of extra work to get them to reconsider. It’s like failing a test and then having to fill out a new application just to retake it.
For pilots who were already struggling with the system, this isn’t simplifying—it’s more like moving the goalposts and charging you an extra fee to play the game. If the FAA really wanted to help, they could just ask for the missing paperwork instead of handing out blanket denials. This feels less like efficiency and more like punishing anyone who doesn’t send a perfect application the first time.
This “fix” might reduce the FAA’s workload, but it’s definitely not reducing yours.
We’re not happy until you’re not happy. Possibly a workaround Congress to deliberately make BasicMed more difficult? Another reason why putting an insider as Administrator would be a mistake.
What they (probably intentionally) leave out to their often cited statistic is that not all of the 95% who leave the AME with a medical certificate get to keep that certificate, at least not without additional paperwork.
What I’d like to know is how many of those 95% are later found to be “invalid” at OKC. And then how many of those are then reinstated. If the latter is anything other than 0 (and I know it’s a non-zero number), it would tell me that the AME who actually sees the pilot knows more about that pilot’s health than some faceless doctors at OKC.
The FAA still has a lot of work to do to modernize and streamline (for the pilots) the medical certification process.
Ah, but that would leave the FAA showing a backlog of deferrals to process, a metric they’ve suddenly become self-conscious about. Read between the lines… this is a <look good, someone’s watching> initiative and “WE don’t want to look bad because YOU didn’t submit all the paperwork.”
@Raf what you suggest is exactly what they are abandoning with this new process and your conclusion is the same as mine as an AME. It is not simplifying, it will increase expenses and it will burden both pilots and AMEs. It does not fix the FAA’s workload, but it will increase it. AMCD is under tremendous pressure to eliminate backlogs in Special issuances.
The only thing changing here is that they reset their deferral to issuance clocks to zero, and their denial rates skyrocket. I would hope that an astute congress would take note and ask why suddenly they have no backlog and their denial rate is approaching the flight levels. It does not fix their workload or deferral delays, in my opinion, it hides it.
For the pilots and students, it could increase the time to get a medical substantially which will never be accounted for, because once the FAA denies, that case is closed and off their books, but the pilot is not flying. Unless the FAA is willing to guarantee that a reconsideration of their denial will be completed within 14 days, it removes all accountability from the FAA and I would be stunned if they agreed to this.
It has taken several of my pilots over a year to get an SI , in one case 18 months. Instead of requesting more information the FAA will no longer allow an issued certificate stand, they will issue a denial, grounding the pilot and provide them with a list. This doesn’t save them work, it increases it. They still have to review the file, make a determination of what they need to clear the pilot, issue the same letter they do now, with different wording: instead of saying we are unable to determine, they will now say we are denying…and you can reapply when you get x, y, z, whatever. Then they have to repeat the process.
When rules become too difficult to follow, people will stop following the rules. I wonder how many of those pilots the FAA thinks are “safely grounded” might still be in the sky with us.
The FAA aero-medical backlog is horrendous. Speaking to some regional FAA personnel last spring I was told their limited OKC staff case-load was somewhere in the area of 4,000 to 5,000. Just the time spent on simple reviews and the back & forth via mail was running a minimum six to eight months. In my case it was a question about an anti-inflammatory prescription taken briefly six months previously. The recommended solution which I utilized was to travel to Oshkosh and meet with the very helpful FAA staff during the show this past summer. Providing copies of the documentation I’d previously submitted to OKC the reps at Oshkosh signed off on my medical reinstatement in less than 30 minutes. Once an application is held up for review it’s a lengthy process. Fortunately for me I had the wherewithal to make a face-to-face meeting happen, for those that aren’t that lucky it can be a very long wait.
I absolutely agree with this. There is hope through continual lobbying of Congress/FAA through elected officials or organizations like AOPA and EAA. Both Basic Med and the MOSAIC initiative are positive changes brought about by external pressure.
Incidentally, this crap is why my teen daughter wants to be an aviation attorney representing pilots. The fact that there absolutely are pilots who are “safely grounded” and flying without incident shows the rules to be absurd, and the face that pilots openly taking care of their physical and mental health can result in medicals being yanked while alcoholics who live in denial about their ADHD and depression can fly as long as they eschew treatment is dangerous. Yes, it’s important to make sure pilots are safe to fly, but the FAA goes so far that all they do is deter people from getting help and encourage people to fly without medicals at all.
The statement, “95% of applicants leave the office with a certificate”, cannot be true. 70.7% of the pilot population is male. Current statistics say that 90% of males die with prostate cancer. Therefor 63% of the total pilot population would statistically have prostate cancer. Cancer is disqualifying according to the FAA. Somebody is lying.
The FAA now requires pilots with disqualifying conditions like prostate cancer to submit all paperwork for special issuance before being certified. The statement that 95% of applicants leave the office with a medical certificate is misleading and technically untrue for the affected subset of pilots. The claim would need to be clarified to reflect that this high success rate applies only to applicants without disqualifying conditions requiring further FAA review.
I heard said by a person who develops data for a government agency, “Do not believe any data from a government agency. The data is designed to manipulate you into believing the government agency is working for you.”
You are correct, Dan. According to OpenAI and a bunch of sources, the real number of pilots walking out with their medical certificates might be closer to 85%–90%, not the 95% the FAA claims. That means more pilots could hit roadblocks under the FAA’s new policy. Instead of just holding things up for more paperwork, incomplete applications will now get a flat-out denial. This change could leave a lot more pilots grounded for longer stretches, which is exactly what’s got folks like the EAA and AOPA worried. Even the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has flagged problems with how the FAA handles medical certification, pointing out delays, lack of transparency, and outdated systems. The result? More pilots being stuck on the ground.
We all need to wake up! The FAA is required to report to Congress and your elected officials are supposed to report and act on your behalf.
From my perspective, FAA medical is quite possibly the most corrupt division of the Federal Government and needs to be shut down. Imagine if you will a medical process that serves to enhance your personal health and longevity through the use of cutting edge scientific research and technology and that your actual medical state is confidential from the FAA. All the FAA is allowed to know is if a pilot is aeromedicly sound or not. If a pilot is scientifically found to be unfit for flight, they are stood down until they can fly. Once again the FAA knows only if the pilot is able or not. There is no long drawn out process executed by washed out Air Force wanna be medics that are unable to maintain a civilian private practice.
If the FAA is not performing in a manner that you find acceptable, write your Representative. If your Representative fails to represent your desires, VOTE them out! I have a problem with the FAA. I conversed profusely with my Representative. My Representative failed to perform. I worked on the campaign that replaced the representative with someone who thinks like we do.