A commission charged with improving health care in rural Oklahoma is set to offer better incentives to draw doctors and nurses there.
The Physician Manpower Training Commission offers physicians up to $160,000 over four years toward repaying medical school loans but will increase that to $200,000. PMTC Interim Director Janie Thompson said Texas offers $160,000 too, but they don't require doctors to practice in rural areas to get the money.
"So, they have the ability to receive that same amount of money and practice in Dallas and Plano and Austin. We have to be able to compete with that, and it’s vital that we do," Thompson said.
The PMTC is hoping for legislation that allows general surgeons to be eligible for loan repayment. Thompson said that would help not only cash-strapped hospitals save money by keeping procedures in house, but also patients far from a better-equipped facility.
"It provides services for our rural patrons that will not have to travel. Even for simple things such as a colonoscopy, and oftentimes they put those off because they don’t want to travel," Thompson said.
The PMTC has 16 physicians in obligated service right now and another 16 that could be in the next few years.
The PMTC also has plans to expand scholarship program eligibility to cover doctoral programs.
"And the reason being one of the largest areas that we hear concern is that we do not have the ability to staff our training institutions because we do not have the nurses that are trained for nurse education," Thompson said.
Current nursing program scholarships go as high as $5,000 per year with matches from participating universities.
