PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture pulls out of J-1 visa waiver program for IMGs
Rural health advocates hope a new task force will find ways to put international medical graduates in rural areas.
By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. May 13, 2002. Additional information
After it processes 86 pending applications, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture will stop sponsoring international graduates who want to stay in the United States after completing their medical training.
Lawmakers and rural health advocates said the USDA's sponsorship would be missed. But they see reason for hope.
The White House is organizing an interagency task force to review the J-1 visa waivers, which exempt IMGs from a required return home for two years if they agree to practice in rural areas of the United States. Agencies expected to be on the task force include the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The USDA also will participate.
Members of Congress said the task force could develop a new program to do adequate background checks with safeguards to make sure doctors practice where they say they will. They are optimistic that the task force will present solutions to keep these doctors in rural communities. "We're going to continue to work with them in order to get this taken care of," said Travis Murphy, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran (R, Kan.), who has pressed the USDA to keep sponsoring IMGs.
The USDA used to recommend visa waivers that kept international medical graduates from the requirement to return to their home countries. But in February the agency ended the practice, citing security concerns following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and saying it lacked the authority to conduct adequate background checks.
Rural health leaders and members of Congress lobbied to reverse the decision, and in mid-April the USDA said it would process 86 pending waiver requests. After that, the agency will end its role in the waiver program.
IMGs also can be sponsored through the Appalachian Regional Commission, which requests about 60 to 70 waivers a year for West Virginia and parts of 12 other states, from New York to Mississippi. And federal law lets a state sponsor 20 doctors each year for communities in need.
Rural health advocates said something is needed to take the place of the USDA.
"This is too important of a program, for rural America, to drop," said Alan Morgan, vice president of government affairs for the National Rural Health Assn.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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