The Washington Post - USA (2021-11-23)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A

BY AKILAH JOHNSON AND

DANIELLE DOUGLAS-GABRIEL

The Biden administration on
Monday announced $1.5 billion
in funding to help eliminate the
shortage of doctors and nurses in
underserved communities by
providing scholarships and re-
paying the student loans of pro-
viders who work in medically
needy areas.
The coronavirus pandemic
has highlighted what has long
been a barrier to accessing quali-
ty medical care in rural areas and
communities of color: provider
shortages.
The lack of primary-care phy-
sicians hindered testing, treating
and educating patients about the
coronavirus and the vaccines,
and now growing staff shortages

in hospitals are aggravating an

already inadequate health care

infrastructure.

“Our nation must invest in a

health-care workforce that looks

like America and provide access

to equitable health care for all

Americans,” Vice President Har-

ris said at a briefing Monday.

“There is more work to be done,

but I believe we are headed in the

right direction.”

The money, made available

through the American Rescue

Plan enacted in March, will be

able to support nearly 23,

providers through the National

Health Service Corps and Nurse

Corps, according to the White

House.

There are more than 16,

clinicians caring for millions of

patients through the National

Health Service Corps, which was

founded in 1972 in response to

dwindling numbers of primary

care physicians.

They work in areas with limit-

ed access to health care, and,

during the pandemic, thousands

served in community health cen-

ters and hospitals across the

country, administering coronavi-

rus tests, caring for infected

patients and putting shots in

arms.

National Health Service Corps

funding supports four loan re-

payment programs for medical,

dental and mental health profes-

sionals. In exchange for two to

three years of work at an ap-

proved site, participants can re-

ceive up to $100,000 in loan

forgiveness, depending on the

line of service.

Scholarships are also available

for students willing to commit a

minimum of two years in ex-

change for a full year of funding.

Participation and funding of

the programs have increased

over the years, but demand in

some programs has outpaced the

federal money available to sup-

port them.

An audit released in June by

the Government Accountability

Office found 43 percent of the

more than 11,100 providers who

applied to National Health Serv-

ice Corps programs did not re-

ceive funding in fiscal 2020.

While some applicants were

simply ineligible, others were

rejected because the limited

funds are prioritized for those

serving in areas with the most

severe shortages.

The funding, according to a

White House official, is in re-

sponse to recommendations

from the White House Covid-

Health Equity Task Force to in-

vest in a representative health

workforce and increase equita-

ble access.

According to the Association

of American Medical Colleges,

about 17 percent of doctors in the

United States are Asian, 6 per-

cent are Latino, 6 percent are

Latino, and less than 1 percent

are American Indian and Alaska

Native.

Medical school student loan

debt, which averages more than

$200,000, is often a barrier to

pursing graduate studies in

health care, which the National

Health Service Corp helps offset

through loan repayments and

scholarships. More than 25 per-

cent of the physicians in the

service corps are Black and Lati-

no.

Luis Padilla, an alumnus and

the director of the National

Health Service Corps, called the

program “life-changing.”

“This is particularly true for

clinicians of color and those

from underserved communities

who otherwise might not be able

to become primary care doctors,

nurses, dentists and behavioral

health providers,” he said.

Padilla added, “Because of

these programs, they can help

ensure that patients in these

underserved communities see

themselves in the clinicians who

care and provide them care.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

White House to invest $1.5 billion to get more doctors to underserved areas

BY MARK BERMAN

AND DEVLIN BARRETT

The federal government has
reached a tentative $127.5 mil-
lion settlement with the families
of victims of a 2018 mass shoot-
ing at a Florida high school, who
sued over the FBI’s failure to act
on warnings that the gunman
was planning an attack, a person
familiar with the agreement
said.
The U.S. Justice Department
filed a notice in federal court
Monday saying the parties are
“working to finalize additional
details before submission for
final approval by the appropri-
ate Department of Justice offi-
cial.”
The exact terms of the settle-
ment were not disclosed, but a
person familiar with the negoti-
ations, who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity because all of
the details were not finalized,
said the agreement was for
about $127.5 million, distribut-
ed among the families of the
victims from Marjory Stone-
man Douglas High in Parkland,
Fla.
The settlement comes a month
after the Justice Department
agreed to pay $88 million to the

families of those killed at a 2015

shooting at a historic Black

church in Charleston, S.C. —

which occurred after the FBI did

not conduct a thorough gun-

purchase background check of

that gunman.

“The word ‘closure’ is not a

word I like to use in these

instances, because there’s no

such thing as closure for these

families who have suffered the

way they did,” said Kristina In-

fante, of the law firm Podhurst

Orseck, who was lead counsel for

the 40 Parkland families suing

the Justice Department. “It’s

something different than that...

it’s turning the page.”

T he Florida gunman, Nikolas

Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty

last month to killing 14 students

and three faculty members in

the February 2018 Parkland

massacre. A jury trial is planned

to determine whether he should

face the death penalty or life in

prison.

A day before Cruz’s guilty

plea, families of his victims and

dozens of others who were

injured or traumatized reached

a $25 million settlement with

the Broward County school dis-

trict, settling most of the negli-

gence suits filed against local

officials in connection with the

shooting.

The FBI’s failure to investi-

gate a January 2018 tip before

the Parkland massacre was one

of numerous warning signs that

authorities failed to pursue. O n

at least three other occasions,

including multiple calls to the

Broward County Sheriff’s Of-

fice, authorities were told that

Cruz was a potential school

shooter.

Those lapses continued until

the day he opened fire. A state

commission found that there

were security lapses at the

school and failures by law en-

forcement officers who re-

sponded.

Days after the attack, the FBI

acknowledged that it did not

follow its own rules for i nvesti-

gating tips related to Cruz.

Officials have said a person

close to Cruz called the FBI’s tip

line to warn the agency of con-

cerns about Cruz’s “gun owner-

ship, desire to kill people, erratic

behavior, and disturbing social

media posts, as well as the poten-

tial of him conducting a school

shooting.”

The FBI, however, failed to

pass the tip along to its local f ield

office for further investigation,

officials have acknowledged.

The Parkland shooting

prompted widespread protests

against gun violence and calls for

stricter gun control laws, but

those efforts so far have not led

to significant changes.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Justice Dept. strikes settlement in Parkland shooting suit

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Three days after the Feb. 14, 2018 , massacre, Steve Zipper visits a makeshift memorial in Pine Trails

Park for victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting i n Parkland, Fla.

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