News

December 19, 2019By Physicians for a Healthy California CalHealthCares

Over one-third of Californians rely on Medi-Cal to meet their health care needs, which includes 40% of all children, half of all people with disabilities, over 1 million seniors and nearly 4 million adults. It also pays for more than 50% of all births in the state and 58% of all patient days in long-term care facilities.

Delivering on the state’s promise to provide quality health care to its most vulnerable population requires that California commit to ensuring there are enough physicians in areas with high numbers of Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Physicians enter practice with hundreds of thousands of dollars in educational debt, and indeed, the average debt burden of a CalHealthCares awardee was $396,768. With more than 13 million Californians relying on Medi-Cal to provide health care, the stakes are high.

CalHealthCares incentivizes physicians to serve Medi-Cal beneficiaries by repaying educational debt up to $300,000 in exchange for a five-year service obligation. In its inaugural April 2019 cycle, nearly 1,300 providers applied with a total educational debt of $500.7 million. PHC ultimately awarded $57.3 million to 240 physicians to maintain and/or increase their Medi-Cal patient caseload.

The next application cycle for CalHealthCares is coming up – Monday, January 13, 2020! If you know someone eligible, encourage them to apply!

If you are interested in learning more, visit www.calhealthcares.org or email CalHealthCares@phcdocs.org to be added to our email list.

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