Third Round of Elevating the Safety Net Recruitment Grants Brings Total to $8.6 Million+
LOS ANGELES — L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly-operated health plan in the country, has announced the third round of Provider Recruitment Program grants as part of its Elevating the Safety Net initiative. The goal of the initiative is to recruit highly-qualified primary care physicians to the Los Angeles County safety net – those providers who offer access to a substantial share of the Medi-Cal population and the uninsured.
“Forty-five new physicians have been recruited into the L.A. County safety net as a result of the $31 million initiative we launched last summer,” said John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. “We must be proactive in the face of a projected shortage of 8,800 primary care physicians in California by 2030.”
The Provider Recruitment Program, one of three programs in the initiative, sent grant award letters to 23 clinics and practices. Twenty-two were each approved for $125,000 to be used for salary subsidies, sign-on bonuses, and/or relocation costs for new primary care physicians recruited into the safety net. One practice received $90,000. Each new recruit could treat up to 2,000 new patients in L.A. County.
Seventy-two Provider Recruitment Program grants worth $8.6 million have been awarded to date.
Awardees
AltaMed Health Services Corp., West Covina
Bartz-Altadonna Community Health Center, Lancaster
Citrus Valley Physician Partners, West Covina
Clinica Romero, Los Angeles
Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAP), El Monte
Eisner Health, Downtown Los Angeles
Garfield Health Center, Monterey Park
Harbor Community Clinic, San Pedro
Kedren Health Community Center, Los Angeles
KHEIR Center, Los Angeles
Kids and Teens Medical Group, Pacoima
MLK Community Health Foundation, Compton
Northeast Valley Health Corporation, Pacoima
South Bay Family Health Care, Gardena
St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, South Los Angeles
T.H.E. Health and Wellness, Los Angeles
The Children’s Clinic, Long Beach
UMMA, Los Angeles
Valley Community Healthcare, North Hollywood
Via Care, Los Angeles
Watts Healthcare Corporation, Los Angeles
Hanaa Hanna, San Pedro
Krishan Vashistha, Canyon Country
Newly recruited physicians to the safety net are eligible for the Physician Loan Repayment Program, another part of Elevating the Safety Net. Under the program, loan repayments of up to $5,000 per month for up to 36 months will be provided to the new recruits, as long as they continue to work within the safety net. So far, 18 physicians have been awarded loan repayment grants.
The third part of the initiative is the Scholarship Program. L.A. Care awarded eight full medical school scholarships when the initiative launched last July. Four of the scholarships went to students attending the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and four went to those attending the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.