L.A. Care Awards $2.5 Million for Physician Recruitment

Fifth Round of Elevating the Safety Net Recruitment Grants Brings Total to $13.5 Million

LOS ANGELES – L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly-operated health plan in the country, has announced the fifth 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.

“We are proud to say that 66 new physicians have been recruited into the L.A. County safety net since we launched the initiative in the summer of 2018,” said John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. “Our efforts to address a critical shortage of primary care physicians are making a difference.”

California is facing a projected shortage of 8,800 primary care physicians by 2030 and low-income areas which depend on the safety net are especially vulnerable. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 60 primary care physicians per 100,000 people, with 80 being preferable, but the number is just 56 in L.A. County.

The Provider Recruitment Program, one of four programs in the initiative, sent grant award letters to 17 clinics. Fourteen 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. Three clinics each received $250,000 to use to recruit two primary care physicians to each facility. Each new recruit could treat up to 2,000 new patients in L.A. County.

To date, 109 Provider Recruitment Program grants worth $13.5 million have been awarded.

The fifth round awardees are:

 

AltaMed Health Services Corp., Los Angeles
Angeles Community Health Center, Huntington Park
Center for Family Health and Education, Panorama City/Long Beach
Comprehensive Community Health Centers (CCHC), Sunland
Chinatown Service Center, Los Angeles
JWCH Institute, Los Angeles/Palmdale
Kedren Community Health Center, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Center, Los Angeles
MLK Community Health Foundation, Los Angeles/Compton
Northeast Community Clinic, Wilmington
QueensCare Health Centers, Los Angeles
St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, Los Angeles
The Children’s Clinic (TCC), Long Beach
Universal Community Health Center, Los Angeles
Venice Family Clinic, Venice
Wilmington Community Clinic, Wilmington
Yehowa Medical Services, Los Angeles

Newly recruited physicians to the safety net are eligible for the Provider 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, 24 physicians have been awarded loan repayment grants.

A third part of the initiative, the Elevating the Safety Net Scholarship Program, is creating a new pipeline of doctors for the safety net. L.A. Care has awarded 16 full medical school scholarships. Eight of the scholarships went to students attending the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and eight went to those attending the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

In July of this year, L.A. Care added a fourth program to the initiative – the Elevating the Safety Net Residency Support Program. Grants to five organizations created 14 new residency positions in Los Angeles County, creating an even quicker pipeline into the safety net.