Hopes for rural health care pinned on student loan repayment

(The Center Square) – Health care workers willing to work in Pennsylvania’s underserved rural regions could get some help repaying student loans.

This after the House Healthcare Committee renewed its drive to incentivize medical workers to live and work in rural areas of the state through student debt repayment

The committee voted unanimously to pass House Bill 157 to the chamber floor. The legislation would allow medical facilities to apply for grants to pass on to employees willing to take on a position far from urban centers.

“Our rural communities continue to face a health care crisis,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren. “Rural health centers and hospitals are struggling to keep their doors open because of difficulties in recruiting providers.”

Over the last several years, the legislature has scrambled to find ways to slow the closing of understaffed facilities. The financial incentives proposed in the bill would come from the Department of Health to draw more providers to desperate health centers.

Individual institutions would be eligible to receive up to $250,000 per calendar year, which they would use to directly pay toward their recruits’ student debt. To receive the reimbursement, staff must stay in the role for a minimum of three years.

The bill would apply to nurses, physicians, midwives, dentists and dental hygienists.

Meanwhile, nursing support staff and registered nurse vacancies in rural hospitals are at 28% and 26% respectively, leaving hospitals and other facilities to operate with a fraction of the workforce they need. Such strained conditions cause burnout, which leads to attrition and exacerbates the problem.

According to Rapp, only 6% of graduates from Pennsylvania’s dental schools go on to work in rural areas.

Rapp called the proposal a “win-win” for professionals and health centers, emphasizing the impact health care access has on a community overall. When people are forced to travel, they often skip both preventative exams and needed procedures. When they do make it out to distant centers, they face travel expenses and time lost at work.

“Ultimately, the real winners will be our rural communities, which will hopefully have fully staffed teams ready to care for residents,” said Rapp.

Pennsylvania’s crisis is part of a troubling national trend. Within the state, nearly half of women are more than 30 minutes from a birth center. Rapp noted that of the state’s 67 counties, 62 are considered full or partial health professional shortage areas for primary care.

“This bill gets to the heart of our provider crisis in our rural areas,” said Rapp’s co-chair and the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, who said he was “grateful” to see its return.

The bill was first introduced as House Bill 2382 last year, and it passed the Health Committee but never made it to a final vote on the chamber floor.