116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa lawmakers take on tackling doctor shortage
One bill would have campuses study 3-year medical program
Feb. 12, 2025 5:31 pm
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
DES MOINES — Iowa House lawmakers this week advanced several bills aimed at closing Iowa's growing shortage of physicians.
The House Health and Human Services Committee approved bills that would allow more Iowans to interview for medical residency slots in the state and explore the feasibility of the University of Iowa and Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences transitioning their respective medical schools from four-year programs to three-year programs.
The bills, which cleared the committee, are now eligible for debate and consideration by the full House.
Iowa and the rest of country is grappling with a worsening physician shortage, resulting in fierce competition for medical professionals. The United States is projected to have a shortage of up to 64,000 physicians, growing to 86,000 by 2036.
Iowa ranks 44th in the nation for patient-to-physician ratio per 100,000 population. Iowa also has the fewest OB/GYNs per capita of any state, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and is one of five states with the highest losses of access to obstetric care over the past 13 years.
According to a 2024 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Iowa was one of three states in the country with the lowest physician retention rates. It was also one of two states that experienced the largest declines in medical school enrollment over the past decade.
In an effort to increase the number of physicians in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced plans to create 115 new medical residency slots in Iowa each year for the next four years at the state’s 14 teaching hospitals.
Reynolds said she’s directing the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to partner with UI Health Care and Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines to secure $150 million in federal money to train new medical residents. Once fully implemented over four years, 460 new physicians would be trained in Iowa, the governor’s office projects.
Residency interviews for Iowans
House File 12 would require UI Health Care to provide an interview for available medical residency positions to applicants with certain expertise and who also is an Iowa resident, or earned an undergraduate or medical degree from an Iowa college, university or medical school.
The requirement would give an interview to any applicant who has a residency specialty in obstetrics, gynecology, psychiatry, general surgery, emergency medicine and neurology or primary care.
"This is another tool to make sure that we have every chance of retaining Iowans in residency programs and therefore taking care of Iowans that need the care," said Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, a registered nurse and floor manager of the bill. "There are waiting lists of months, six months, nine months, to get into certain specialties. We don't have enough physicians."
Lawmakers amended the bill striking a requirement to allow Iowa medical students to participate in a short clinical rotation that allows them to interview for residency programs. UIHC representatives said they lack the capacity for additional clinical rotation auditions.
The House Health and Human Services Committee advanced the bill 15-5 Tuesday, with Democrats opposed.
Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, a physician who practices internal medicine and teaches medicine as an adjunct professor for the UI, said he voted against the bill because additional interviews would take physicians away from patients.
“I think the spirit of this bill is honorable,” Baeth said. “ … My concern comes from concerns expressed from the University of Iowa and residency programs that they just don't have the capacity — they just don't have faculty — to do all the interviews that might come their way if they are now required to offer an interview to every single person from Iowa who applies.
“And I know from personal experience doing faculty interviews here, that it is pulling teeth getting doctors to block clinic time — so time away from patients, time away from patient care — to do half-hour interviews for each applicant that comes.”
Baeth added that UIHC offers an interview to 71 percent of applicants who have an Iowa tie.
Accelerated med school programs?
House File 146 would require the UI Carver College of Medicine and the Des Moines University's College of Osteopathic Medicine to conduct a study to see if their four-year medical schools could be turned into three-year programs.
The study would include an analysis of other medical schools that have implemented such a transition and the results of such transitions, including the reduced costs for students.
The House Health and Human Services Committee advanced the bill 13-7, with Democrats opposed.
Baeth offered an amendment rejected by Republicans that would have removed Des Moines University from the bill. Baeth said the university has already study it and determined it could not offer a three-year program, as it lacks a medical residency program.
The schools would have to submit a joint report to the governor and Iowa Legislature by Dec. 1.
Requirement for enrollment
House File 137 would require the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state’s three public universities, to adopt a policy requiring at least 80 percent of students accepted at the colleges of medicine, nursing and dentistry at the UI be residents of Iowa or enrolled in a public or privately accredited college, university or community college in the state.
Lawmakers voted the bill out of subcommittee Tuesday, making it eligible for consideration by the full House Health and Human Services Committee.
Other bills advanced
The committee also advanced the following bills, making them eligible for debate by the full House:
- House File 14: Allows for the lawful prescription, distribution, and marketing of a synthetic version of psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in mushrooms, once approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The bill aims to align state law with federal regulations regarding the drug, thereby facilitating its medical use once it receives FDA approval to aid veterans and others suffering from serious mental health disorders. The FDA currently categorizes it as a Schedule 1 hallucinogenic substance.
- House File 104: Removes a minor’s ability to legally consent alone to receiving the HPV vaccine or vaccinations used to treat sexually transmitted diseases or infections. Supporters say current policy allows for minors to be coerced into accepting a vaccine and the proposed legislation would return a layer of parental consent. Representatives of medical associations and medical professionals have argued against the bill, noting that HPV vaccines significantly reduce the risk of cancer.
- House Study Bill 8: Expands existing law by allowing teens as young as 16 to provide “flex care” for children from infancy to age 2 at a child care center without adult supervision. Currently, teenagers are limited to caring for children over age 2. The bill defines “flex care” as “child care provided during designated nap hours and during brief periods” when an adult employee of a child care center is not present to provide supervision.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters