Too Few Drs, A CA Med School Offers 5 Full Scholarships

[orangeblossom]

ETA: Edited title to reflect scholarships are for a specific school and five students from donated funds.

www.cbsnews.com/news/faced-with-too-few-physicians-california-offers-free-medical-school/


(CBS News) RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- In addition to getting more Americans to sign up for private insurance, the health-care overhaul will also get more people to sign up for Medicaid.



In California, Medicaid applications have jumped by 135,000 since Oct 1, and the projection is for 1.4 million new applications in 2014. That's the most of any state.



The problem is that there aren't enough doctors to treat them. Here's what one medical school is doing about it.








California's shortage of primary-care doctors has left Jennifer Han in the unique position of starting medical school and not having to worry about the cost.



She could be racking up $36,000 a year in medical-school debt -- just for tuition. But she won't have to pay that.




"I think it is an amazing deal," she said.



Han is the first student at the new University of California Riverside Medical School to get this rather unique deal.



"Basically you get medical school for free," said the school's dean, Dr. Richard Olds.



With money donated to the school, he's planning to offer five full-ride scholarships to students who agree to stay in the area for five years after they graduate and choose primary care rather than more lucrative specialty fields such as radiology and anesthesiology.



"Forty percent of the doctors in my community look like me," Olds said. "They're 55 years of age or older and they will retire in the next 10 years. So, the net result of that is we will probably have a 5,000- to 6,000-physician deficit in 10 years no matter what anyone does."






His school is located in California's Inland Empire where Obamacare is expected to insure more than 300,000 people by next year. But the area already has a shortage of 3,000 doctors.



Han plans to be a pediatrician.



A primary-care physician can make about $200,000 a year compared to twice that for a specialist. How tempting is it to chase the money?








"That can definitely be enticing in terms of paying back our medical-school loans and stuff like that," Han said.



If she sticks to the deal, she will leave debt free, and her community will have one more doctor it desperately needs.

[itsme]

Well, since I live in that area I guess I'll be going back to school for free. How long is med school? I'll probably be at retiring age by the time I'm done.

[heyjude]

The title is misleading. California is not giving away medical degrees for free. Money was donated to one school which will fund 5 full ride scholarships. This is hardly a game changer.

[itsme]

Sept 23, 2015 16:00:24 GMT -5 heyjude said:

The title is misleading. California is not giving away medical degrees for free. Money was donated to one school which will find 5 full ride scholarships. This is hardly a game changer.

You ruined it for me. 

[charminglife]

How does this work if a med student isn't accepted for a local residency? And residency is three of the five years following graduation, so it's really only two years of staying local following residency. This is a pretty sweet scholarship.

[heyjude]

Slow day in the newsroom....

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 23, 2015 16:05:02 GMT -5 charminglife said:

How does this work if a med student isn't accepted for a local residency? And residency is three of the five years following graduation, so it's really only two years of staying local following residency. This is a pretty sweet scholarship.

That's actually where the bottleneck is - with residencies.  We have more than enough med students, and there are hundreds rejected from school for each one accepted.  But there are not enough residency slots available for graduates, and adding slots is extremely difficult.  I used to know the details pretty well, but I've forgotten a lot in the 3+ years since I worked in that field.  I remember it involves crazy Medicare funding rules.

[charminglife]

Sept 23, 2015 16:21:13 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Sept 23, 2015 16:05:02 GMT -5 charminglife said:

How does this work if a med student isn't accepted for a local residency? And residency is three of the five years following graduation, so it's really only two years of staying local following residency. This is a pretty sweet scholarship.

That's actually where the bottleneck is - with residencies.  We have more than enough med students, and there are hundreds rejected from school for each one accepted.  But there are not enough residency slots available for graduates, and adding slots is extremely difficult.  I used to know the details pretty well, but I've forgotten a lot in the 3+ years since I worked in that field.  I remember it involves crazy Medicare funding rules.

You're absolutely right. I don't think Medicare has increased the number of residency slots/funding for residency since 1994? My H is a 2nd year resident and he and his med school friends applied to SO many more programs than students did even five years ago because of how competitive it's gotten. I think he applied to 19 total, and he's in internal med which isn't one of the super-competitive residencies.

Finding out the Monday before Match Day that he actually matched somewhere was a HUGE relief. (and it was his first choice, so it worked out!)

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 23, 2015 16:28:41 GMT -5 charminglife said:

Sept 23, 2015 16:21:13 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

That's actually where the bottleneck is - with residencies.  We have more than enough med students, and there are hundreds rejected from school for each one accepted.  But there are not enough residency slots available for graduates, and adding slots is extremely difficult.  I used to know the details pretty well, but I've forgotten a lot in the 3+ years since I worked in that field.  I remember it involves crazy Medicare funding rules.

You're absolutely right. I don't think Medicare has increased the number of residency slots/funding for residency since 1994? My H is a 2nd year resident and he and his med school friends applied to SO many more programs than students did even five years ago because of how competitive it's gotten. I think he applied to 19 total, and he's in internal med which isn't one of the super-competitive residencies.

Finding out the Monday before Match Day that he actually matched somewhere was a HUGE relief. (and it was his first choice, so it worked out!)

Congrats to your H!  

I'm a little sketchy, but IIRC, existing programs can't add new slots (like, ever).  They can add a new program (like radiology), but however many slots they create when they program begins is their limit.  The only option for adding slots is to create programs in new hospitals.  That process is long, complex and expensive.  Residency programs are usually a money-maker for hospitals, but they have to lay out all (or most?) of the cash beforehand.  So you end up in this cycle where a new program can only afford X slots right now, but they could afford X + Y down the road, but they are stuck with X.  Fucked up.

[runaways]

Sept 23, 2015 16:42:21 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Sept 23, 2015 16:28:41 GMT -5 charminglife said:

You're absolutely right. I don't think Medicare has increased the number of residency slots/funding for residency since 1994? My H is a 2nd year resident and he and his med school friends applied to SO many more programs than students did even five years ago because of how competitive it's gotten. I think he applied to 19 total, and he's in internal med which isn't one of the super-competitive residencies.

Finding out the Monday before Match Day that he actually matched somewhere was a HUGE relief. (and it was his first choice, so it worked out!)

Congrats to your H!  

I'm a little sketchy, but IIRC, existing programs can't add new slots (like, ever).  They can add a new program (like radiology), but however many slots they create when they program begins is their limit.  The only option for adding slots is to create programs in new hospitals.  That process is long, complex and expensive.  Residency programs are usually a money-maker for hospitals, but they have to lay out all (or most?) of the cash beforehand.  So you end up in this cycle where a new program can only afford X slots right now, but they could afford X + Y down the road, but they are stuck with X.  Fucked up.

Programs can apply for new slots. My program is in the process of doing so. They just have to be able to prove that they have the volume (in my specialty, enough anesthetic cases) to allow all residents to get the required exposure/experience to be able to graduate in the set amount of time.

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 23, 2015 17:15:09 GMT -5 runaways said:

Sept 23, 2015 16:42:21 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Congrats to your H!  

I'm a little sketchy, but IIRC, existing programs can't add new slots (like, ever).  They can add a new program (like radiology), but however many slots they create when they program begins is their limit.  The only option for adding slots is to create programs in new hospitals.  That process is long, complex and expensive.  Residency programs are usually a money-maker for hospitals, but they have to lay out all (or most?) of the cash beforehand.  So you end up in this cycle where a new program can only afford X slots right now, but they could afford X + Y down the road, but they are stuck with X.  Fucked up.

Programs can apply for new slots. My program is in the process of doing so. They just have to be able to prove that they have the volume (in my specialty, enough anesthetic cases) to allow all residents to get the required exposure/experience to be able to graduate in the set amount of time.

Well, my info is old and sketchy - lol.

[runaways]

Sept 23, 2015 17:43:16 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Sept 23, 2015 17:15:09 GMT -5 runaways said:

Programs can apply for new slots. My program is in the process of doing so. They just have to be able to prove that they have the volume (in my specialty, enough anesthetic cases) to allow all residents to get the required exposure/experience to be able to graduate in the set amount of time.

Well, my info is old and sketchy - lol.

Yeah, I only know this because I happen to be here while this is happening. I would guess it becomes more an issue of 1. not wanting to go through the hassle of getting approved for more spots and 2. even with increased funds perhaps not having the patient load to support more spots.

[pugz]

this doesn't help the fact that many doctors and practices don't WANT to treat patients on Medicaid because the reimbursement is shitty, there is tons of red tape involved, challenging population to work with, etc.

[mcgee]

There's a cap on the amount the federal government will pay in Medicare reimbursements for medical residents, and it hasn't been increased in close to 20 years. This tends to limit the number of residencies available, which in turn means that medical schools tend to limit the number of applicants. That's a pretty simplistic explanation of the problem.

In addition to that, fewer students want to go into family practice because you don't earn as much as you do in a specialty field like cardiology, and fewer students want to practice in rural areas both for quality of life reasons and for income reasons. So the result is a shortage of family practice doctors, especially in rural areas.