{"id":17814,"date":"2013-06-21T11:10:01","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T17:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=17814"},"modified":"2013-06-21T11:14:24","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T17:14:24","slug":"how-the-immigration-bill-could-help-reverse-idahos-doctor-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/06\/21\/how-the-immigration-bill-could-help-reverse-idahos-doctor-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Immigration Bill Could Help Reverse Idaho’s Doctor Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stethoscope<\/a>

Emilie Ritter Saunders \/ StateImpact<\/p>

<\/p><\/div>\n

The Idaho Statesman<\/em> has reported on<\/a> an interesting piece of law tucked into the federal immigration reform package. It’s a provision that could allow more foreign-born doctors to practice in states with physician shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As StateImpact<\/em> has reported over the last year, Idaho has fewer doctors per capita than every state in the country except Mississippi<\/a>. The shortage here is expected to get worse, too, as almost 42 percent of Idaho doctors are 55 or older<\/a> and approaching retirement. <\/p>\n

The Statesman reports the immigration bill includes ways to make it easier for foreign-born doctors to work in the U.S.<\/p>\n

“Foreign-doctor visas allow foreign-born and foreign-educated doctors and psychiatrists to work in places where American doctors won’t. Doctors with the waiver agree to spend three years in those places, employed by hospitals or clinics.<\/p>\n

To practice in the U.S., all doctors with foreign medical degrees – except Canadian degrees – must complete residency training in the U.S., according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.” – Idaho Statesman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The paper says Idaho hasn’t had much luck with the foreign doctor visa program.<\/p>\n

“The state has 30 waivers to use each year. From 2005 to 2009, it used four. There was a mini-surge in 2011, when five international doctors came to Nampa, Blackfoot and Boise to work. Most of them are still practicing in those cities.” – Idaho Statesman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Part of the challenge with attracting foreign physicians to Idaho could be cultural. You can read the full story here<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Idaho Statesman has reported on an interesting piece of law tucked into the federal immigration reform package. It’s a provision that could allow more foreign-born doctors to practice in states with physician shortages. As StateImpact has reported over the last year, Idaho has fewer doctors per capita than every state in the country except […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":11474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[183,188],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17818,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814\/revisions\/17818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}