Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Physician Jobs Lead to Substantial Student Loan Repayment Award

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 03.31.2009

As the doctor shortage worsens in rural and high-need areas nationwide, states are stepping up incentives to recruit physicians of all types. New York State alone has pledged $22 million to its Doctors Across New York Program and Michigan is working hard to abate a projected physician shortage of 6,000 doctors over the next ten years. Physician recruitment agencies are focused on these areas and fast-tracking physician specialists for permanent and locum tenens jobs.

Why offer payback incentives in a field known for high salaries? The simple fact is, practicing medicine in what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services refers to as a designated Health Professional Shortage Area – or underserved market – isn’t as lucrative as physician jobs located in larger market areas. So, in exchange for student loan payback incentives, qualifying doctors agree to work in shortage areas for three to five years and dedicate one-third of their practice to treating patients with Medicaid, Medicare or no insurance at all, depending on the requirements of individual state and federal payback programs.

The Colorado Health Foundation’s Physician Loan Repayment Program is currently awarding eligible doctors up to $50,000 a year for a maximum of three years if they serve in a qualified rural or urban Colorado community. Currently, 57 percent of the state’s 64 counties lack enough primary-care physicians to sufficiently serve the population. The program awarded more than $2 million to 18 physicians in 2008. Physician recruitment agencies are ideal sources to find physician jobs and locum tenens opportunities in these areas as well as highly coveted positions located in Metropolitan areas.

Student loan payback incentives have been around for a few years. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the state of Louisiana developed the Greater New Orleans Health Service Corps, an organization offering incentives of up to $110,000, including student loan repayment and income guarantees to doctors, dentists and other medical professionals willing to work in post-disaster conditions – a move to lure needed doctors into the ravaged city and to stanch an outmigration of doctors eyeing greener pastures. The federal government provided $15 million to finance the Louisiana program and the state awarded 81 grants to attract physicians for primary care medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, psychiatry jobs, dentists and a handful of nurses and counselors.

For doctors less interested in pay and more inclined to utilize their skills to help what most would consider the underprivileged, states across the country have various programs in place that offer doctors loan repayment in exchange for medical services. Oregon’s Rural Health Services Loan Repayment Program offers to repay 20 to 25 percent of the loan principle for health professionals who agree to work in a rural
hospital, a rural health clinic or pharmacy located in either a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area or state designated Area of Unmet Health Care.

For doctors not interested in practicing medicine, The National Institute for Health offers health professionals up to $35,000 in student loan repayment for a commitment as a medical researcher. Not such a bad deal, say loan payback proponents.