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New funding to help more doctors launch careers in primary care
02.17.2012
Despite the fact that there are numerous job openings in primary care, few medical school graduates decide to pursue this career path. The reason is that jobs in family medicine aren't as lucrative as specialties, and with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt, a career in primary care may simply not pay off.However, efforts are underway to restructure benefits to make family medicine more attractive to new graduates. One of the most immediate examples of this is the National Health Service Corps program. This initiative, which is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, recently announced that it will administer $9.1 million to medical school graduates who commit to practicing in primary care in a medically underserved community.
The funding for the initiative was made possible as part of the Affordable Care Act. Participants can receive grants of up to $120,000 to help them repay their student loans. Mary Wakefield, the administrator of the program, said that this can make a major difference to a medical school graduate who is excessively burdened with loan repayments and feels that primary care does not offer the incentives necessary to get out from under their debt.
"The average medical school debt of the students receiving these awards is more than $200,000," she said. "The Students to Service program relieves a tremendous debt burden, allowing them to follow their passion for primary care and serve some of the country’s most underserved rural and urban communities."
The Service Corps program was originally started in 1972 and has helped more than 41,000 doctors start careers in primary care. With the fresh allocation of funds, it could help even more physicians launch practices at a time when their services are desperately needed.
Categories: Physician Recruitment
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