Rural Kansas Attracts Dentists through Financial Aiding

A few days ago, a dental association and insurance company from Kansas brought to light some interesting plans. They want to develop a college loan-repayment program in order to bring dentists in the rural areas of Kansas.

There are several underserved areas in the state, and many organizations and associations see this plan as a very important one.

Many dentists are extremely reluctant of moving their offices to lightly populated locations in Kansas. The Kansas Dental Association and the Delta Dental of Kansas Association want to use up $150,000 in order to attract dentists to these underserved areas of the state.

Those who will participate in the program will receive $50,000 during a period of three years, in order to pay off their dental school loans. However, those involved in the program will have to work in the Kansas underserved communities for a period of 3 or 4 years.

According to Hal Hale, who is the president of Kansas Dental Association, such loan repayment programs are extremely useful and effective when it comes to attracting health care professionals to work in such an underserved area.

In the past years, similar plans for dentists have been presented to Kansas Legislature, but they were impossible to implement due to lack of available funds. However, many regard it as an extremely difficult task to recruit healthcare professionals this way.

The majority of these students invest a lot of money into their education and in order to open their own dental facility and they are reluctant about relocating to such lightly populated communities.

In order to earn a dentistry degree at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, a student can pay up to $165,000. Even so, the initiative will be implemented, because citizens of Kansas living in these areas are in desperate need of good dental professionals.

This program follows the structure of one which has been implemented in Iowa, and there is enough evidence to prove that it can work out successfully.