Debt deadbeats risk losing medical licenses

A growing number of state medical boards are leveraging licensure against student loan repayment.

By Jay Greene, AMNews staff. Aug. 13, 2001.

Physicians in their first years of practice face a myriad of money matters as they juggle the desire for middle-class trappings of success with the obligation to pay back student loans, now averaging about $93,000.

If they don't juggle wisely, they risk losing their license or facing other disciplinary actions in a small -- but growing -- number of states that are stepping up their efforts to collect delinquent state and federal loans.

"The last five years the number of states that discipline physicians for failing to pay student loans has been increasing," said Dale Austin, interim chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards. "In some cases the loan amounts are so huge that authorities look for some effort to pay. We have to figure out some way to help these folks pay their loans, not just punish them."

This year, legislators in Texas and Georgia passed laws, joining Minnesota, Washington, Virginia and California, to discipline physicians for failure to pay federal student loans or fulfill such service obligations as practicing in underserved areas in exchange for loan forgiveness. The type of discipline can range from fines in California to license revocation in Minnesota. Florida and Alabama also tie discipline to state loan defaults; Maryland disciplines doctors for failing to complete service obligations. Of the 94 doctors disciplined for these issues by medical boards in 2000, most worked out payment schedules to avoid losing their licenses, FSMB said. [...]