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Student loan repayment programs are among the strategies hospital executives use to attract and retain clinicians amid rising medical school debt and a national mental health professional shortage.
At New York City’s public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals, an anonymous $1 million donation has helped retain behavioral health staff. The system, which runs 11 hospitals throughout the city, has distributed over half a million dollars in student debt relief to 16 staff members thus far in exchange for a “three-year commitment to serve the public health system,” according to an April 12 release.
Each recipient has received between $30,000 and $50,000 of student debt relief, totaling $580,000. The program still has another $420,000 left to distribute this year.
On average, early-career psychiatrists leave school with $190,000 of medical school debt, psychologists have $80,000 of debt, and psychiatric nurse practitioners carry $56,000 of debt, per the release.
“This debt relief program doesn’t just change the lives of individual staff, it sends a powerful message to everyone: frontline mental health professionals are essential, and their commitment to NYC Health + Hospitals makes a critical difference to New York City,” Omar Fattal, NYC Health + Hospitals deputy chief medical officer and system chief of behavioral health, said in the statement.
The demand for behavioral health services grew during the Covid-19 pandemic as more people reported exacerbated mental health issues. The percentage of US adults experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression grew to 41.5%, up from 36.4%, between August 2020 and February 2021, according to a 2021 CDC report.
Yet behavioral health organizations reported difficulties recruiting and retaining employees due to a lack of quality applicants and competitive wages, as well as Covid-19 burnout, according to a 2021 survey of 260 members of the National Council of Mental Wellbeing, a nonprofit aimed at increasing access to mental health and substance use care.
Other health systems could follow NYC Health + Hospitals’ lead by providing financial incentives to attract and retain a behavioral health workforce, such as signing bonuses, student loan repayment programs, or other reimbursements for training and credentialing, suggests a 2021 brief from Health Management Associates, a healthcare consulting firm.