A federal loan repayment program aimed at getting more health care providers to help people suffering from opioid dependency is crucial to fighting what has been a deadly epidemic in Rhode Island, state health officials say.
Overdose response plans, naloxone distribution and education campaigns on opioid dangers are already funded by millions of dollars in grants, but placing medical personnel on the frontlines of the crisis costs money, too.
The loan repayment program is intended to incentivize health care professionals to focus on helping those dealing with addiction. In exchange, they receive grants to pay back student loans.
“The need to have health care providers who can provide treatment for people who are living with substance-use disorder is a separate challenge,” said R.I. Department of Health spokesman Joseph Wendelken. “We absolutely need more health care providers who are providing treatment.”
A staggering 1,944 overdose deaths have been reported in Rhode Island since 2013, including 208 confirmed fatal overdoses this year, according to state data. Meanwhile, the fight against Rhode Island’s opioid crisis has soaked up more than $71 million in 15 active federal grants, according to the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
A number of state agencies, including BHDDH, DOH, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, the state Medicaid program and the R.I. State Police are using the grants.
While the scope of the state’s opioid problem hasn’t outpaced the money, BHDDH spokesman Randal Edgar said, the funds need to be directed to key facets of the crisis, including the health care workforce.
“Rhode Island, along with the entire nation, is working to build its workforce in this area,” Edgar said. “We have good providers, but we need more people in the treatment and recovery field.”
The National Health Service Corps’ Substance Use Disorder Workforce Loan Repayment Program, created in late 2018, offers physicians and other health care providers a chance to pay off loans taken out for medical training. In return, providers agree to work for three years with patients fighting addiction.
In Rhode Island, 10 clinicians received awards this past summer and fall totaling $634,458. Nearly all of them work with primarily low-income patients in areas that are considered underserved.
Dr. Gabriel Pleasants, a primary care doctor at Tri-County Community Action Agency in Johnston and North Providence, received an award of $75,000 that will help pay off his medical school loans.
Pleasants, 34, said the money will help him and other young doctors remain longer at lower-paying facilities doing work that they feel is important.
“We know it does draw younger providers to say, ‘I’m going to work at this practice to get those [loan repayment] benefits,’ ” he said. “What I like about this is it’s going to help me have the financial stability to stay in a practice like this for a long time.”
Pleasants qualified for the program because he prescribes suboxone to patients in need of medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. “A big part of what we know is that any kind of treatment has to be widely available and usually integrated into the primary care model,” he said.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.
