Fourth Round of Elevating the Safety Net Recruitment Grants Brings Total to $11 Million
LOS ANGELES – L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly-operated health plan in the country, has announced the fourth 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.
“Since the launch of the $31 million initiative in July of last year, 60 new physicians have been recruited into the L.A. County safety net,” said John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. “California is facing a projected shortage of 8,800 primary care physicians by 2030, so we have to be proactive.”
The Provider Recruitment Program, one of four programs in the initiative, sent grant award letters to 20 clinics and practices. Nineteen 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 $66,250. Each new recruit could treat up to 2,000 new patients in L.A. County.
Ninety-two Provider Recruitment Program grants worth $11 million have been awarded to date.
The fourth round awardees are:
AltaMed Health Services Corp., Los Angeles
AppleCare Hospitalist Medical Group, Lynwood
Bella Medical Group, South Gate
Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAP), Pasadena
Eisner Health, Los Angeles
Family Health Care Centers of Greater L.A, Los Angeles
Garfield Health Center, Monterey Park
Harbor Community Clinic, San Pedro
JWCH Institute, Los Angeles
L.A. Christian Health Centers, Los Angeles
Northeast Community Clinic, Wilmington
QueensCare Health Centers, Los Angeles
St. Isabel Family Medical Clinic, Harbor City
St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, Los Angeles
Tarzana Treatment Centers, Inc., Lancaster
The Children’s Clinic, Long Beach
Unicare Community Health Center, Los Angeles
Valley Community Healthcare, North Hollywood
Venice Family Clinic, Venice
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, 18 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.