MBC Now Accepting Applications for the
2005 Steven M. Thompson Physician
Corps Loan Repayment Program
[Posted 04/07/05]

Applications are now available for the 2005 Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps (formerly California Physician Corps) Loan Repayment Program. The program, created under a CMA-sponsored law in 2002, was renamed last year in honor of Thompson, CMA’s longtime vice president of government relations, who passed away in August after a very short but precipitous battle with cancer.

In addition to earning a salary, physicians selected for the program will be eligible for medical school loan repayment grants of up to $105,000 in exchange for a three-year service commitment in a medically underserved area of the state. The list of “eligible practice settings” includes official “health professionals shortage areas” (HPSA) and federally qualified “health center look-alikes,” community health centers, migrant health centers, and public housing centers.

The law requires that most participants be selected from the specialty areas of family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology. Up to 20 percent of the participants may be selected from other specialties.

Applications are due by April 29 and can be downloaded at the medical board's website.

CMA is still seeking a permanent funding source for this very important program. According to the Medical Board of California, there is not enough money to award all qualified applicants. Only 19 of 69 qualified applicants received a loan repayment grant in 2004 and the medical board expects that number to be even lower this year.

The medical board recently secured a $500,000 “challenge grant” to fund the 2005 loan repayment program. To receive this grant money, the medical board must match the grant with $500,000 of its own money. A bill (AB 327) is currently in the Legislature that would authorize the medical board to ask physicians, as part of the licensing and renewal process, to make a voluntary $50 contribution to the loan repayment program. The funds raised this year would be used by the medical board to match the challenge grant.

Contact: Patty Frisk, 916/444-5532 or pfrisk@cmanet.org.