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CHA — along with the California Medical Association (CMA), the Texas Hospital Association, and the Texas Medical Association — submitted a joint letter last week to U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Secretary Miguel Cardona on federal student loan forgiveness for physicians.
The letter urges the DOE to provide student loan forgiveness under the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program to California and Texas physicians who meet all the program’s requirements but have been rendered ineligible because of state law that prohibits private, nonprofit hospitals from directly employing physicians.
In the letter, the organizations urge the DOE to adopt an alternative proposal to require additional written certification from an authorized official of a public service organization certifying that a physician is authorized to work in the private, nonprofit facility through the clinical privileges credentialing process and works full time but is not able to be employed by the facility because of state law.
The proposed alternative is consistent with the PSLF statute and program standards and would improve access to physician medical care in California’s hospitals for our most vulnerable patients.
CHA has partnered with CMA for many years to get this regulation fixed and thanks member hospitals for submitting comments on the proposal.