There aren’t many options available to the thousands of women who reside in rural eastern Maryland for someone to deliver their infants.
Due to the lack of an obstetrics physician at the neighborhood hospital, the majority of pregnant women in this expanse of farmland and antique shops turn to the Chesapeake Health Care clinic.
The National Health Service Corps, which guarantees to pay off $50,000 in medical school debt for every two years that a doctor serves working in rural, urban, or underdeveloped areas, has placed five of the clinic’s ten obstetricians and midwives there.
The clinic’s chief medical officer, Dr. Lee Jennings, claimed that “OB is frightfully difficult to recruit, and I’m not really sure exactly why.” We are the only OB group in the entire area, which makes us isolated.
Millions of government funds have been poured into the National Health Service Corps over the past three years to hire thousands more medical professionals who are willing to work in the neediest areas of the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for the forgiveness of their medical school loans. The program’s expansion is now under threat now that the health emergency is passed, even though patients are having difficulty accessing timely and high-quality care due to a worker shortage that affects the entire industry.
The program’s funding runs out at the end of September, but President Joe Biden requested that Congress approve an additional $500 million for the project in his budget.
Thanks to an additional $800 million the U.S. Congress threw to the program in stimulus packages released as the coronavirus raged, the number of nurses, doctors, dentists, counselors, and midwives has increased dramatically. Just over 20,000 persons participated in the corps last year, an increase of 50% from the 13,000 members in 2019.
In community health centers across the nation, the program has placed medical experts from a range of specialties, from occupational therapists in Ohio to counselors who treat drug and alcohol addictions in Alaska. No matter a patient’s health insurance status or financial situation, those clinics are supported by the federal government to offer primary care.
Republican and Democratic senators who support the program say they are appreciative of the gap that corps members fill in both rural and underserved towns that are suffering from shortages. The shortage of family physicians, OB-GYNs, and nurses in the United States is predicted to get worse during the coming ten years.
The powerful Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is chaired by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has elevated the matter to the forefront of hearing discussions. Sanders claimed that in his own state, patients have complained to him about waiting periods of up to five months merely to see a doctor for a physical.
He told reporters that if financing for the corps is not renewed and increased, the issue would get worse.
People will have difficulty finding dentists and mental health counselors, according to Sanders. “If it’s bad right now, it’s only going to get worse.”
A group of House Republicans last month presented a bill that would keep the corps program funded but not with the same amount of money as Biden has asked for.
The bill’s Republican sponsor, Rep. John Joyce, stated at a congressional hearing on the problem of a lack of healthcare professionals last month, “One of the most consistent issues I’ve heard in my district in Pennsylvania is the shortage of physicians and health care workers.”
Nevertheless, a divided Congress that is just weeks away from permitting the United States to default on its debts puts the future of the program in jeopardy. According to Carole Johnson, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which manages funding for the corps, uncertainty around program funding makes it challenging for medical clinics to find medical professionals.
“We expect to keep expanding. We are aware that there is a net demand,” Johnson remarked. Although every interaction we’ve had has been quite positive, the situation is still challenging.
With more than 2,000 extra counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and drug addiction counselors hired over the past four years, mental health has been one of the program’s fastest-growing areas.
Approximately eight of the Haymarket Center’s providers work at the biggest 24-hour treatment facility in Chicago. Every year, the clinic sees about 12,000 patients, many of whom are homeless. According to Jeffrey Collord, vice president of operations at the non-profit Haymarket Center, the corps program enables the center to recruit healthcare professionals in a cutthroat market with a unique perk: up to $250,000 in student loan forgiveness.
Being a part of the program enables us to offer a benefit that other sites are unable to, according to Collord. “We might not be able to pay staff at the highest levels.”
Dr. Stephen Robinson was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a family doctor thanks to the remission of his student loans. Throughout medical school, he fretted about the growing amount of student loan debt and observed as many of his peers sought more lucrative careers as specialist doctors. However, his father looked into alternatives and came upon the National Health Service Corps.
More providers would enter primary services, according to Robinson, if they believed they could leave the sector and still be able to pay off their debt. We were able to do that because of this.
One of the sought-after OB-GYNs that Chesapeake Health Care hired through the program is his wife Caitlin. Women who are expecting go up to an hour to visit her.
After participating in the program for seven years, both are almost debt-free now. However, they have no immediate plans to leave their small Maryland community. The Robinsons adore bringing up their kids close to the ocean, open spaces, and parks.
Even though we are over, Stephen Robinson stated that there are no future intentions for the group.
