By New York State Senator Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, 53rd Senate District
With many upstate communities experiencing healthcare professional shortages, I am again advocating for a major policy initiative and related legislation I have proposed that would help to recruit and retain doctors and improve the quality and availability of healthcare for all New Yorkers, especially those in more rural areas of the state.
This effort comes after a recent New York State Comptroller report examined healthcare professional shortages in 16 rural counties – including in Chenango and Herkimer counties in the 53rd Senate District – and found alarming shortfalls in primary care, pediatric, and obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN) doctors, dentists and mental health practitioners, with several counties having no pediatricians or OBGYN doctors at all.
My proposal would help address this issue by:
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Improving the Doctors Across New York program, which helps train and place physicians in underserved communities, by increasing the benefit for the programs that help recruit new physicians, help doctors repay educational loans or establish or join practices (S.5071).
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Allowing students enrolled in a state-supported medical school to participate in the Excelsior Scholarship program and for non-resident students residing within a certain distance of the border of New York State to have tuition rates reduced to two-thirds what they would otherwise be charged as an out-of-state student (S.5099/A.716).
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Expanding START-UP NY options to primary care to allow physicians looking to establish a primary care office in the field of primary care services to access the START-UP NY program (S.5075). Additionally, expanding the START-UP NY program to include primary care services also would increase access to primary care physicians in otherwise underserved areas of the state.
- Providing a partial tax exemption for real property purchased by a clinician for use as primary residence when the clinician works in and the property is located in a clinician shortage area designated by the Commissioner of Health (S.7036).
This initiative was developed following meetings between myself and doctors and medical professionals, including Dr. Michael Ratner, the late Dr. John DeTraglia, Dr. Sudershan Dang and Dr. Steven Kussin and many other active and retired physicians from the region.
It is my hope that, because of this initiative, we will be able to recruit and retain doctors
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