A new legislative task force is working to solve one of Idaho’s longstanding problems – having the lowest number of physicians per capita of any state in the country.
Lawmakers created the Medical Education Plan Working Group earlier this year as they debated severing the state’s relationship with the University of Washington’s medical education program, WWAMI.
During its first meeting Monday, medical education leaders from around the state and the region have said they want to increase the number of student seats available to Idaho residents.
But they’ve repeatedly pointed to a bottleneck: there aren’t enough clinics or doctors willing to host medical students for rotations, especially with multiple schools in the area trying to recruit them.
“It’s a very crowded, competitive learning environment,” said Dr. Rex Force, the health sciences dean at Idaho State University.
Simply accepting more students without increasing the availability of these practical instructors, leaders said, is not possible.
Paying these clinics to become preceptors, or instructors, is one option, though those additional costs could increase the price of tuition.
Force said ISU does not pay its preceptors, but gives them benefits, like access to the university’s medical library, gym facilities and parking passes.
Idaho lawmakers recently tried to boost physician retention rates by requiring any student using a state-subsidized seat to practice here for four years after completing their residency. Otherwise, the student would have to pay back the state’s share of tuition.
Dr. Mary Barinaga, a dean for the WWAMI program at University of Idaho, said she got pushback from students about that law when it first took effect in the fall of 2023.
“Many of them were mad and said, ‘I was planning on coming back to Idaho anyway, but now, you know, this is making me feel like you’re forcing things,’” Barinaga said.
She said she had to accept every alternate student candidate for the first incoming class affected by the change.
Students mentioning the payback requirement has decreased each year, according to Barinaga.
Data on how it could affect retention won’t be available until 2030 when the first class of students will have finished their residency programs.
Dr. Ted Epperly, who coordinates graduate medical education in Idaho, said lawmakers could tweak the policy to become more of an incentive than a penalty, given that most other states don’t have similar requirements.
Epperly suggested covering more, or all of a student’s tuition bill with the same requirement to practice here following a residency.
“I think we’ll see a lot more interest and it’s a choice they then make on the front end not a force on the back end,” he said.
The task force will continue to meet over the coming months and issue its recommendations to the legislature before it reconvenes in January.
Copyright 2025 Boise State Public Radio
