North Carolina More Successful Than Most States in Recruiting Doctors to Rural Areas

Many rural areas have trouble attracting and retaining doctors, but North Carolina "does better than most," the AP/Raleigh News & Observer reports. According to the National Rural Health Association, residents of rural areas are "more likely" to live below the poverty level and "less likely" to have health insurance or prescription drug coverage through their employers. Having a combination of lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates, longer hours and fewer resources, rural areas around the United States often find it difficult to attract doctors, Bob Konrad, director of health professions and primary care at the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center, said. While 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, fewer than 11% of the nation's doctors practice there, according to the National Rural Health Association. According to Serge Dihoff, a health care specialist with the North Carolina Office of Research, Demonstrations and Rural Health Development, the state "has been one of the most successful" in recruiting rural doctors, the AP/Observer reports. In 1973, the state became the first to establish a rural health office, which provides rural care facilities technical assistance and offers incentives to attract doctors to rural areas of the state. Dihoff said that the state still has "difficulty meeting the demand" for care providers, adding, "In one day, we probably get about 170 to 250 requests for primary care clinicians. That includes nurses, dentists, primary care physicians and physician's assistants" (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 12/9).