Baucus, Tester Announce Grant to Train More Family Practice Doctors in Billings

Press Release

Montana's U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester today announced a grant through the Affordable Care Act to train more family medicine doctors in Montana. The $450,000 grant will allow the Montana Family Practice Residency at RiverStone Health in Billings to train three additional residents in family practice medicine.

The additional training slots are big news for Montana patients, because more than 70 percent of family medicine residents trained through the residency at RiverStone Health stay and practice medicine in Montana when they finish.

"This grant is a win for good-paying jobs and healthy families," Baucus said. "We know that folks who see a regular family doctor are more likely to get better care over the long-run, which keeps them out of the emergency room and saves money for everyone. But that can be tough to do when there just aren't enough doctors to go around. Training more doctors in Montana will help us keep more doctors in Montana, and that's what this grant is all about."

"One of the best ways to improve family health care in Montana is to train more doctors and get them to practice in our state," Tester said. "This award will encourage young doctors to hone their skills and stay in Montana so that more Montanans get the high-quality care they need."

"73 percent of our graduates go on to practice medicine right here in Montana, so this grant is good news for patients all across the state," said President and CEO of RiverStone Health John Felton.

At least 52 of the 56 counties in Montana are federally designated in part or total as primary-care physician shortage areas. Nationwide, 77 percent of all rural counties are designated as health profession shortage areas.

Today's grant is part of the Teaching Health Center grant program Baucus created under the Affordable Care Act to help address the nationwide shortage of family medicine physicians. The grant program will provide $230 million nationwide to train doctors in rural and community-based settings like the community health center at RiverStone Health.

RiverStone Health received its first grant through the Teaching Health Center program in 2011, allowing it to add one additional slot for first-year residents. In 2012, the grant was doubled to include a second-year slot. And the 2013 grant announced today will fund an additional third-year residency slot, for a total of three additional training slots each year for the Montana Family Medicine Residency at RiverStone Health.

The Montana Family Medicine Residency program based at RiverStone Health is the first medical residency of any kind in Montana. The program was started in 1995 to help meet Montana's shortage of primary care physicians, and graduated its first class in 1998.

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