This blog will focus on taking a closer look into the National Health Services Corps (NHSC).
The purpose of this post is to help assist those with questions they have concerning their business or medical practice. The Callagy Law team is knowledgeable in many law practice areas and will frequently post topics ranging from Medical Revenue Recovery, PIP, Workers Compensation, and Commercial Insurance. We hope to have this blog shed a light on many common questions.
Inner-city and rural populations in America often lack access to quality, primary health care. Indeed, these “underserved” communities, defined as having 2,000 or more persons per one physician, suffer the consequences of an ongoing trend toward over-specialization of physicians and young doctors flocking to more lucrative practices in more exclusive metropolitan areas. Like so much else in poor rural communities and under-privileged inner-city America, health care needs to greatly improve.
This trend toward over-specialization of physicians and physicians seeking more lucrative metropolitan practices began in the 1950’s. In response, the United States government, under the Nixon Administration, began the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), an organization providing scholarships and other financial aid incentives to entice young physicians to practice in these underserved communities. Although the program was relatively successful, budget cuts and decreased enrollment in the program during the 1980’s limited the program’s effectiveness, leaving too many rural and inner city communities still underserved.
In defense of the physician community, it is understandable how this situation has developed. The average indebtedness of medical school graduates is now over $160,000, and, as a result, the lower paying primary care fields are not high on the career wish-list of medical school graduates.
Fortunately, the NHSC has seen a recent “renaissance” under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barak Obama, with increased funding (the NHSC received a $240-million-dollar grant this past October) and enrollment (NHSC membership doubled from 2008 through 2011). While primary care physicians are still paid less than specialties, such as urology or cardiology, the prospect of graduating with limited or no medical school debt appears to be enticing enough to newly-graduated physicians that we could soon begin to see a significant decrease in the number of underserved communities across the United States.
There still exists the additional problem of access to specialized care in these communities, but establishing a base of rural and inner-city primary care physicians is invaluable. It seems apparent that the continued growth of the NHSC is vital to making sure that, one day, every American has access to quality health care, regardless of location or background.
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