A comparative assessment of West Virginia's financial incentive programs for rural physicians

Financial incentive programs are increasingly being used as a strategy to recruit physicians to underserved rural areas. Critical evaluation of state-supported programs is often lacking but is necessary to determine their efficacy and to improve outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to assess 4 service-contingent programs in West Virginia, a state with critical physician shortages.

Survey instruments were developed to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and to document the practice environments and career paths of obligated allopathic and osteopathic physicians compared with a control group of nonobligated rural practitioners. Data were also collected from physicians who were recipients of multiple incentive programs and from obligated physicians who had defaulted.

Responses from more than 60% of surveyed physicians indicated that the typical respondent was a married white male who was a midcareer family practice physician. Obligated physicians were more likely than nonobligated physicians to have graduated from a West Virginia medical school and residency program, to be influenced by financial factors in their career decisions, to provide care to uninsured patients, and to work in offices that offered sliding fee scales. Both groups of physicians demonstrated similar retention patterns, reported a high degree of job satisfaction, and expressed a need for more practice management training.

Although these financial incentive programs were found to be effective in recruiting primary care physicians to medically underserved areas of the state, the financial support of these programs was found to be too modest, and improved marketing of the programs was indicated.