Those clinics receive federal funding to provide primary care for patients, regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay. The program has placed medical professionals across a variety of disciplines – from occupational therapists in Ohio to counselors who treat drug and alcohol addictions in Alaska – in community health centers around the country.

Last year, just over 20,000 people were corps members – up 50% from 13,000 people in 2019. Congress kicked to the program in stimulus packages unveiled as coronavirus raged. The number of nurses, physician, dentists, counselors, and midwives has ballooned thanks to an extra $800 million the U.S. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Susan Walsh Previous Nextįunding for the program expires at the end of September, although President Joe Biden asked Congress to sign off an extra half-billion dollar for the project in his budget. Robinson, M.D., right, pose for a photo at a Chesapeake Health Care office in Salisbury, Md., Thursday, March 2, 2023. Caitlin Robinson, D.O., left, and her husband Stephen J. Now, with the health emergency over, the program’s expansion is in jeopardy – even as people struggle to get timely and quality care because of an industry-wide dearth of workers.ĭr. Over the last three years, millions of taxpayer dollars were pumped into the National Health Service Corps to hire thousands more doctors and nurses willing to serve the country’s most desperate regions during the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for forgiving medical school debts. “We’re isolated, we’re in an area where we’re the only OB group in the entire area.” “OB is frightfully difficult to recruit, and I’m not real sure exactly why,” said the clinic’s chief medical officer Dr.

The local hospital doesn’t have an obstetrics doctor on staff so most women in this region, flanked by sprawling farm fields and antique stores, turn to the Chesapeake Health Care clinic.įive of the 10 obstetricians and midwives at the clinic are there because of the National Health Service Corps, which promises to pay off $50,000 in medical school debt for every two years that a doctor serves working in rural, urban or poor areas. (AP) - Thousands of women living in rural, eastern Maryland have few options when they’re looking for someone to deliver their babies.

One Night Only by Catherine Walsh