Partners Healthcare Receives Gift of $20M from Patriots Owner to Attract Doctors and Nurses to Community Health Centers

If one is planning on going to medical school or is there now this looks like a great way to get some of the loans for education paid off with a trade off of working 2-3 years in a community health center for needy patients.

The Kraft family is the owner of the football team the New England Patriots and they hope other philanthropists will join in. You can read through here and this sounds like a win-win for both sides with getting care to those who need it and a good pay off for medical school expenses too. BD

With a $20 million gift from Robert and Myra Kraft, Partners HealthCare is launching a program to attract doctors and nurses to Massachusetts community health centers, the cornerstone of the push to reduce health costs and care for newly insured patients.

The gift to Partners HealthCare System Inc. will be used to pay off up to $50,000 of the medical school loans of physicians and nurse practitioners, as well as finance fellowships in targeted specialties and for master’s degrees. In return, caregivers must work for two to three years in a health center or other community-based setting to care for needy patients.

Over the next five years, Partners chief executive Dr. Gary Gottlieb estimates, the Kraft donation will support more than 100 physicians, nurse practitioners, and other providers caring for about 200,000 patients.

Partners is the parent organization of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals, and the Krafts have deep professional and personal connections to Harvard’s largest teaching hospitals.

Fellows will receive two years of training in community medicine and will earn a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health or another Harvard school. The program will pay for their tuition and provide up to $50,000 in loan repayment, in return for three years working in a community health center or another program for the underserved. It does not have to be a health center owned by Partners.

Krafts give $20m to draw doctors into community - The Boston Globe