Idaho’s Rural Areas Helping Doctors Repay Student Loan Debt
July 31st, 2006An AP article details the medical doctor supply in Idaho.
About 90 percent of Idaho qualifies as a “health professional shortage area,” according to federal guidelines.
That’s a lot of demand. To remedy this problem the state Office of Rural Health awards $220,000 per year to medical facilities, some of which go to clinicians for student loan repayment.
The lure of bonus money to relieve student loan debt is often not enough to get someone to move to a small town and become a family doctor.
Dr. Rob Wolfe said part of his inspiration to work in a rural area was attending the funeral of his grandfather, who worked as a doctor in a Wisconsin farming town.
“There were thousands of people coming in and they said, ‘You don’t know what he did for me,’ and ‘He delivered me,’ and ‘He delivered my kids,”‘ Wolfe said. “It struck me that you can make a big impact on people’s lives.”
A nice resource to check out would be the National Health Service Corps, which provides up to $50,000 of loan assistance for doctors that work in qualified rural areas for two years.
