The economic impacts of Oklahoma's Family Medicine residency programs

The enactment of Medicare and Medicaid created a new demand for medical services in Oklahoma, particularly in rural areas. The state of Oklahoma responded by creating The Oklahoma Physician Manpower Training Commission in 1975. The overall purpose of the Commission was to increase the number of primary care physicians and influence distribution into non-metro areas. This analysis concerns the public policy value of this ongoing program. The PMTC has provided resident stipend funding to each of Oklahoma's publicly funded Family Medicine residency programs. Since 1975, the PMTC has provided over 139 million dollars in resident stipend funding and support; and there have been 749 program graduates with 431 practicing in Oklahoma. This model calculates that the Oklahoma-based physicians have created a cumulative 3.7 billion dollars of economic impact on the state; and conservatively estimates that only 10% of the practice decisions/locations were influenced by the PMTC. This creates an estimated return of 370 million dollars on an "investment" of 139 million dollars. Additionally the model demonstrates that the current cohort of physicians is annually responsible for 15,530 jobs and an associated payroll of 428 million dollars.