© 2024 Innovation Trail

Money for rural doctors, nurses safe in NYS 2011 budget

Rural New York needs more doctors and nurses. To address that, Governor Cuomo didn’t cut an incentive program for medical practitioners in rural parts of the state.
dougtone
/
via Flickr
Rural New York needs more doctors and nurses. To address that, Governor Cuomo didn’t cut an incentive program for medical practitioners in rural parts of the state.

For the health care industry, there is a small bright spot in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget proposal - one program not being cut. 

The program, known as “Doctors Across New York,” was enacted in 2008. It aims to entice nurses and doctors to practice in rural parts of the state, by paying off their student loans.

In the Governor’s budget proposal the program would be extended for three more years.

Bill Van Slyke, of the Healthcare Association of New York State, says while that’s good, the 2 to 3 percent overall cut to health care providers in the budget is going to be hard to grapple with.

“The budget itself doesn’t specify any mechanics or any methods for how that savings is going  to be achieved,” says Van Slyke.

The governor has appointed a team to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program in hopes of finding health care savings in the state budget.

Doctors Across New York is slated to receive more than $10 million for the next three years.

Innovation Trail alumnus Ryan Morden is originally from Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's in journalism, minoring in political science and Scandinavian studies. Morden was Morning Edition producer and reporter at WRVO before moving over to the Innovation Trail project. Before landing at WRVO, Morden covered the Washington State legislature as a correspondent for Northwest News Network (N3), a group of nine NPR affiliates in the northwest.
Related Content