Sinema Hopes Bill Will Keep Doctors In Rural Arizona By Boosting Training Programs

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(Photo by Alex Proimos/Creative Commons)

Senator Kyrsten Sinema has cosponsored bipartisan legislation, the Rural Physician Workforce Production Act, that would help train and keep doctors in rural Arizona by boosting medical training programs.

“We’re working to keep more doctors in Arizona – especially in rural communities – by strengthening support of medical training programs, so more doctors study, train, and work in underserved areas across our state,” said Sinema in a press release.

Sinema says the Act more equitably supports doctor training programs in rural and underserved areas.

According to Sinema, because the state struggles from severe primary care shortages in rural areas and around tribal communities, increasing the number of graduate medical education training slots in more rural Arizona communities will increase the likelihood that Arizona medical students stay in Arizona for their residency training. She hopes that once they have completed that training, they will continue to serve in rural locations despite the fact that similar efforts have failed.

In fact, Sinema’s bipartisan legislation is supported by a 2017 Government Accountability Office report that found federal efforts intended to increase graduate medical education training in rural areas were limited and faced several challenges. These challenges include financing, graduate medical education caps per program and hospital, and the lack of adequate payments to critical access hospitals and sole community hospitals.

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