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Tax credits eyed as means to ease state’s doctor shortage 

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Tax credits eyed as means to ease state’s doctor shortage 

Mar 29, 2023 | 9:24 am ET
By Dana Gentry
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Tax credits eyed as means to ease state’s doctor shortage 
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Only three states - Wyoming, Idaho, and Mississippi - have fewer doctors per 100,000 population than Nevada. (Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current)

Legislation designed to alleviate Nevada’s doctor shortage would divert up to $4 million in its first year from the state’s general fund to hospitals seeking to set up residency programs.  

“Statistically, where you do your final education is where you stay,” state Sen. Robin Titus, the bill’s primary sponsor, testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development. “We do not want to keep educating our finest folks, only to have them move to other states.” 

Nevada has 203.99 doctors per 100,000 residents, according to the National Institutes of Health. Only three states – Wyoming (196.37), Mississippi (194.14), and Idaho (188.43) – have lower ratios.  The District of Columbia has the highest ratio of doctors at 672.22 per 100,000 residents. 

Senate Bill 369 would allow financial institutions, mining businesses and other employers required to pay the state’s modified business tax to obtain a tax credit that could be used for up to five years. The amount of the credit would be granted to hospitals for residency and postdoctoral fellowship programs. 

The initial $4 million cap on credits would increase annually by 3% of the approved amount for the previous fiscal year.

“We do not want to be a net exporter of physicians,” testified Stephen Lencioni, a second year medical student at the University of Nevada Reno. Lencioni said new doctors are required to spend three to seven years in graduate medical education before they can enter private practice. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services provides residency funding directly to hospitals.  

“The scale of government support for this phase of physician education is unlike any other profession in the nation,” Lencioni told the committee, noting in fiscal year 2018, federal spending on graduate medical education exceeded $15 billion. 

But federal funding fails to address the needs of all Americans, he said, especially those in rural areas. Elko’s Family Medicine Residency Program is closing for lack of funding, according to its founder, Dr. Dan Spogen, a professor at the University School of Medicine in Reno. He says support for resident physicians’ salaries usually comes from hospitals.

“Northeastern Regional Medical Center is withdrawing that support at the end of June,” he testified. “Northeastern is managed by a hospital corporation out of the state of Tennessee.”

The medical center is owned by Lifepoint Health, which had revenue of $8.8 billion in 2021 and has more than 80 hospitals in 28 states, according to its website