New bill aims to attract physical therapists to rural areas with student loan relief
The bill would make physical therapists eligible for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program.
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The bill would make physical therapists eligible for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program.
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A new bipartisan bill may make it easier for patients to see physical therapists in rural and underserved areas, by making those providers eligible for student loan relief.
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado introduced legislation this week that aims to make physical therapists (PTs) eligible for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program, which would extend their services to community health centers across the country while helping providers pay down their college debt. The program provides free healthcare to patients in “rural and underserved communities.”
“By expanding this program, we can encourage more physical therapists to take jobs in the communities that need them most, and provide patients living in those areas greater access to the care they need,” DeGette said in a statement.
On average, physical therapists leave school with $116,183 in student loan debt related to their PT training, according to a 2020 report from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The median income for physical therapists within three years of graduation was $72,000 in 2020, per the report.
DeGette believes the expansion of PT services to treat pain will help curb opioid use disorder, which affected 1.6 million people in the US in 2019, according to the most recent statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Physical therapists are not eligible for NHSC’s program, despite demand for their services and “their ability to treat pain without the use of addiction-causing medications,” according to the statement. Patients who had physical therapy treatment within three months of a musculoskeletal pain diagnosis were able to reduce their risk of long-term opioid use by approximately 10%, a 2018 study from the Stanford University and Duke University Schools of Medicine found.
As the US population ages and demand for physical therapy services increases, the PT shortage is expected to grow to more than 26,000 by 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“[This bill] would fix a glaring gap in the NHSC—namely, its lack of a physical rehab component—and connect the dots between NHSC service and community health centers, where much of that service takes place,” APTA Congressional Affairs Specialist Steve Kline said in a statement.
