The funding will incentivize more providers to pursue a career at a safety-net clinic, ideally tackling the provider shortage and driving patient care access in vulnerable areas.
LA Care Health Plan has committed $31 million to creating programs that would funnel more doctors into high-risk patient populations, ideally closing patient care access gaps that are cropping up amidst the provider shortage.
The initiative, Elevating the Safety Net, will address high-needs areas and safety-net clinics. This will help patients access healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay or access comprehensive healthcare coverage.
Specifically, the funding will go toward grants to incentivize more clinicians to pursue careers treating vulnerable patients at safety net clinics. Grants will provide medical school scholarships, programs for physician salary subsidies, sign-on bonuses and relocation costs, and a program for medical school loan reimbursements.
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One of the largest issues perpetuating the clinician shortage is the difficulty and financial strain of undergoing the schooling to become a clinician. Medical school costs are nearly insurmountable, pushing some to seek alternative career options. Ideally, these grants will help hopeful clinicians overcome those financial barriers.
“These students won’t have to carry a loan the size of a home mortgage when they graduate,” asserted John Baackes, CEO of LA Care. “Our hope is that the relief from that financial burden will enable them to pursue their passion for serving the underserved, and work in the safety net treating our members.”
LA Care Health Plan has suggested that students who are interested in treating vulnerable, safety-net populations will be considered for these financial awards.
LA Care, which is considered a public entity and community-accountable health plan in Los Angeles County, made the investment to address the growing clinician shortage that is already impacting patient access to care.
Within the next decade, the clinician shortage should reach 9,000 providers in California, according to numbers from the University of California San Francisco. Nationally, it could reach between 42,600 and 121,300 physicians, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
By 2030, AAMC expects the national clinician shortage to reach 120,000 physicians.
Those numbers do not include the shortages patients may face if nursing numbers continue to dwindle, as well.
The increasing clinician shortage creates a serious crisis, considering patients will always need to see their doctors, Baackes said, hence LA Care’s financial commitment.
“This is the largest commitment L.A. Care has ever made, and we’re eager to see the positive impact on the communities we serve,” Baackes explained. “Our members are going to need care next year, the year after, and 10 years from now, and this investment aligns with our mission of supporting the safety net of providers who serve them.”
Funneling more of the workforce into medical careers is a common strategy for addressing the clinician shortage and patient care access issues. Nearly two years ago, the American Medical Association created a mapping tool that allows prospective and current medical students to view where there are extreme areas of clinician shortage.
From there, medical students can choose where their services may be best suited.
More recently, the Government Accountability Office has called on HHS to aggregate more data about graduate medical education to get a better hold on where providers should be directed to begin their careers. This could help better control the populations of doctors in various different communities and drive equity in patient care access.
In addition to having more doctors, some medical professionals are calling to supplement doctors’ efforts. Expanding scope of practice laws for advance practice registered nurses and physician assistants could fill in primary care gaps left by a dearth of physicians.
These latest efforts from LA Care to incentivize providers to choose treating more vulnerable patient populations could have a positive impact on those living in rural regions or urban areas hit hard with social challenges.
Date: July 20, 2018
Source: PatientEngagementHIT
