TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A new state law designed mainly to crack down on Medicaid fraud is having unexpected consequences by keeping some health care professionals from getting or keeping their licenses at a time when the state is suffering a shortage.

A little-noticed provision in the 160-page measure is preventing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and others licensed by the state from working in Florida if they have old felony convictions for fraud or drugs.

The law, which went into effect July 1, prohibits applicants who've had such convictions - even if unrelated to Medicaid or other government programs - from getting new or renewed licenses until at least 15 years after they've completed their sentences, including probation. The ban also applies to no contest pleas and cases where judges have withheld findings of guilt. More than 30 license applications have been denied or withdrawn because of the law.

Another twist: The provision covers only those who have violated Florida or federal laws. Applicants convicted of the same crimes in other states can still be licensed in Florida.

"To favor people who commit their crimes out of state doesn't make any sense," said Anna Small, legislative counsel for the Florida Nurses Association.

Katina Campbell, who graduated from LPN school in June, withdrew her Florida application after the state notified her of the new law. The 37-year-old single mother of two, including a legally bind teenager, couldn't get licensed because she had been convicted of credit card fraud.

"I'm heading for Alabama," Campbell said. "I have to move out of my home I've been in for two years since I've been released from prison and uproot my kids."

After being turned away by Florida, Campbell received an Alabama license and has been driving back and forth looking for a job there.

She comes from a family of nurses and was a certified nursing assistant before serving a five-year prison term. After her release in 2007 she received clearance from the state Board of Nursing to enroll in the LPN program at Winter Haven's Ridge Career Center. Campbell said her parents and grandparents sacrificed to put her through school and she had a job lined up at a nursing home.

"Even when the governor says rehabilitate-rehabilitate, restore-restore, Florida still says 'No, you're out,'" Campbell said.

The measure also has a potential constitutional problem. The Department of Health and state licensing boards have not applied the requirement to renewals unless applicants committed crimes after the July 1 effective date. Officials are worried that rejecting renewals for earlier crimes would violate licensees' property and due process rights.

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