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New hope for rural areas short on doctors

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Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014 6:45 PM

DENVER - A new plan to allow multi-state licensing for physicians could help fill gaps in areas without enough health-care services. If at least seven state legislatures agree to what's known as a multi-state compact, a licensed doctor could easily get permission to practice medicine in any of the compact states.

Kevin Bohnenblust with the Wyoming State Board of Medicine says the compact would be especially useful for bringing specialists from large cities to rural areas with only a small number of patients.

"They might only have three or four patients, but their services would be critical," he says. "We're hoping it will give added flexibility where there are underserved areas."

The details of the compact were unveiled this month, and Bohnenblust says it's already receiving interest from across the country. According to the Colorado Health Institute, Colorado's Eastern Plains in Kit Carson, Cheyenne, Elbert and Lincoln counties have only one full-time primary-care physician for every 5,600 people.

Under the compact, a doctor could pay a fee and go through a fairly simple process to get an additional license. Bohnenblust says that's much simpler than getting separate licenses to practice in multiple states, although he says doctors would still have that option. He adds if a license under the compact was suspended in one state, it would be suspended in all of them. Bohnenblust says the compact is designed to make services such as telemedicine easier to do.

"We're all getting more comfortable with doing things like Skyping and FaceTime. As patients become more comfortable with it, and as physicians and other health-care professionals become more comfortable, you'll see more and more care driven that way."

He says the compact could especially help doctors who want to operate a practice on both sides of a state line.

Experts say the shortage of doctors could grow more acute as more people get health coverage and access to care under the Affordable Care Act.

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