Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health recently donated $50,000 to the Iowa Rural Physician Loan Repayment Program, according to a Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier report.
"It's a no-brainer in terms of supporting a way to support students who eventually become primary care physicians who will" provide more access to primary care in rural Iowa, Bill Leaver, UnityPoint's president and CEO, told the WCF Courier.
According to the report, the Iowa Rural Physician Loan Repayment Program offers loan forgiveness of up to $50,000 a year for four years to medical students who do the following:
• Train in primary care or another approved specialty
• Complete their residency in Iowa
• Serve in a community with less than 26,000 residents that is more than 20 miles from a large city for five years
The Iowa Farm Bureau also recently donated to the program, giving $25,000. Those donations are added to the roughly $2 million appropriated to the program by the state.