Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Wednesday her legislative proposal to increase physician training options and rural health care accessibility, a step she said will help ease burdens on rural hospitals and increase patients’ health outcomes across the state.
Reynolds signed House File 972 at Guthrie County Hospital in Guthrie Center, one of many rural health providers she said will benefit from the measure. The law, which she first introduced in February, includes multiple components. It directs the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to create a “hub-and-spoke” funding model for rural health care services based on the current Centers of Excellence Program and makes changes to Iowa Medicaid rates for providers serving mothers and infants.
Reynolds said improving rural health care access “starts with growing our physician workforce.” To address health care workforce shortages, the law makes changes to Iowa’s training and residency programs — HHS is also directed to work to draw down $150 million in federal funding that will go toward the creation of a projected 115 new residency slots at Iowa teaching hospitals. Reynolds said this expansion will help Iowa retain more of the health care providers who went to school in Iowa.
“Doctors often decide to practice where they do their residency,” Reynolds said. “Today, Iowa ranks 40th in the number of residency slots … which means many of our (medical graduates) don’t get chance to continue their training here.”
The new residency slots are one way to encourage medical providers to stay in the state — another part of the law works to provide an incentive to health care providers by consolidating the state’s medical student loan repayment programs to a new system with a boost of $8 million in funding, opening the program to individuals who are trained out-of-state who commit to practicing in high-demand areas of Iowa for five years.