ScutDoc.com

SAN ANTONIO– Doctor shortages in rural communities
could get worse if Congress doesn’t renew a federal
program that allows visa waivers for foreign doctors
who agree to work in shortage areas, advocates of the
program say.

Health care experts say the lower pay, smaller patient
base and a lack of specialists, hospitals and
technology in rural communities throughout Texas make
it tough to recruit doctors. As a result, they are
increasingly dependent on foreign doctors.

Jasper Dr. Saurabh Singh said that when he opened a
clinic in Woodville, he advertised for a doctor in
newspapers and health journals for nearly a year and
didn’t get a single call until he targeted foreign
doctors.

“Everyone wants to go to a big city where there are
specialists, movie theaters and a nice house,” said
Singh, an India native who stayed in the United States
under the waiver program. “These rural communities
need doctors bad.”

The program, called the State 30 J-1 visa waiver
program, expired June 1. Its future is in a
congressional committee, although aides to several
U.S. House members predict it will be approved in some
form this year.

Physicians who attend U.S. medical schools under an
“exchange visitor” visa are required to return home
for two years before they can apply to work in this
country. The waiver program allows them to stay in
this country, but they must agree to work at least
three years in shortage areas.

Nationally, more than 1,000 doctors received J-1 visa
waivers last year. In Texas, more than 4.9 million
people live in what the government has designated
“health professional shortage areas,” places with less
than one doctor per 3,500 residents.

Texas recommended visa waivers for 71 physicians over
the past three fiscal years. Of those, 43 went to work
in counties on the Texas-Mexico border. Most of the
waivers in Texas go to specialists.

“Some of those subspecialists are very critical,”
Connie Berry of Texas Primary Care Office told the San
Antonio Express-News. “You can’t perform surgery
without an anesthesiologist.”

Critics of the program, run by the U.S. Department
Health and Human Services, say it drives American
physicians out of business. Others say the
restrictions are so tight, foreign doctors don’t
bother applying.

“You do not want to flood the market with so many
foreign doctors that people here do not want to start
down the path of medical school,” said Jessica
Vaughan, a senior policy analyst for the
Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which
advocates more restrictive immigration policies.