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Bank of America, Partners HealthCare and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers last month announced a $5 million program to improve access to quality health care for low- and moderate-income individuals and families. The funding will be provided by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.
“With the passage of the state’s landmark health reform legislation, hundreds of thousands of people will have insurance for the first time,” said Gov. Deval L. Patrick. “But health care coverage without access is meaningless. Bank of America has taken a bold step in helping the state meet this challenge, and I commend the bank’s commitment to ensuring that patients have access to primary care.”
To expand access, the grant will attract more than 50 new doctors to primary care practice in Massachusetts; create openings for 65,000 additional patients, or about one million new patient visits over the next five years; and create new programs to train primary care physicians.
Partners President and CEO James J. Mongan, MD, said the average wait for a new patient to obtain an appointment with a primary care physician is nearly five weeks, and the percentage of patients waiting for more than two months for a primary care appointment has increased by more than 50 percent since 2005.
“Nationally, the percentage of medical school students choosing to practice internal medicine has fallen from 55 percent in 1998 to only 20 percent in 2005, resulting in a serious shortage of primary care physicians nationwide and in Massachusetts,” Mongan said. “This makes access to preventive care that keeps people healthy and out of the hospital more difficult and puts the promise of universal health care at risk.”
The grant will provide loan repayment for doctors who commit to practice at one of 24 community health centers in eastern Massachusetts. Through the program, medical students, residents and practicing health center physicians who agree to work in primary care in community health centers for at least two years will receive funds to help repay their educational loans up to $25,000 a year for three years. This maximum $75,000 in loan repayment is approximately 60 percent of the average medical school debt of $130,000.
For more information about the program and to obtain an application, visit www.massleague.org With questions, contact Kristin Mason, manager of community benefit partnerships for Partners, at kmmason@partners.org or 617-585-2812.