loan forgiveness

[organicmatter]

Hello all. I sometimes browse through physician job postings and have found that specialist jobs (e.g. cardio, urology) tend to offer loan forgiveness. I don't see too many IM or FP jobs that make such offers.

I hate the idea of choosing a field in part because the jobs often will pay back part or all of my loan, but I will be about 180k in the hole and so this is a factor. Any insight as to why certain fields provide it and how common the phenomenon is. I'm not including federal programs here.

Thanks in advance.

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[southerndoc]

Rural areas routinely offer loan forgiveness for IM and FP's. This is especially true of towns so small that they currently have no physician.

 

[Newdoc2002]

A recruiter I talked to a few weeks ago says these packages usually show up when there is demand. He feels (I don't know how to value his opinion) that you are seeing a downturn in need for Primary Care that will rebound in the next 3-4 years.

I think we are riding the specialty pendulum with only a few specialties immune (derm, opth) for the most part. Four years ago you could walk into an aneth. spot and now it is much more difficult to grab a spot. Some popularity is dictated by the lifestyle and reimbursement changes in a specialty but the govt. and the schizophrenic AMA shoot off their mouths about physician supply before they figure what's going on.

I've said it before though, Go with your heart on specialty choice. You've worked to D$%@ hard to be miserable for the next 20-35 years.