You’ve worked countless hours hiring a physician for a vacant role. You find the perfect candidate, who is just as excited as you about joining the team.
Then, right before it’s time to sign the contract…poof! They vanish, never to be heard from again. Does this sound familiar? Sadly, this is a story we’ve heard far too often.
Complicated compensation packages can hurt
The weight of loan repayment is impacting where physicians choose to work - not surprising when 73% of them graduate with student debt.
Often, physicians (especially recent graduates) don’t understand their employment or benefits contract because they’re overcomplicated. They keep job hunting or pass on great offers because they don’t completely understand them.
Physician recruiters are experts in their field, but if the topic of debt repayment gets ignored or overlooked while discussing contracts and compensation, physicians often get cold feet.
"Ghosting" can happen to the best physician recruiters. Imagine a physician has two offers. The first offer is $220,000 with $30,000 student loan assistance in the first year, totaling $250,000. The second offer is $240,000 with no loan assistance. This candidate feels responsible for paying their large student loans, so they take the first offer. However, if they had the right help, they’d realize option two is better for the long term.
Partnering with a student loan expert can help physicians, recruiters and their health care organizations.
Loan counseling services can help
A loan counseling service can create a custom student loan repayment plan for physicians working in both for-profit and nonprofit health care systems.
This partnership could help physicians save more money off their loans than most organizations could provide in student loan assistance.
A service like student loan counseling can bring a lot of peace of mind to your physician recruits.
Research done by Dr. Julie Phillips from Michigan State University says that, "Student loans have a huge impact on physicians including depression, delayed marriage and regretting career choice."
In addition, the student loan system is broken by loan servicer errors, state supreme court injunctions forcing physician borrowers into forbearance, and the uncertainty and poor record of Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Dealing with these factors makes physicians feel out of control and zaps their time and energy.
Your organization can remove this frustrating stressor by offering physicians student loan counseling with ongoing support. Need more proof? Here’s what some of your colleagues had to say about using student loan counseling from Navigate:
Tina Stover, WVU Medicine: "Our physicians were desperately in need of loan repayment assistance, and we didn’t have deep enough pockets to help them. This has been a great solution for us to be able to provide them with a resource."
Soumya Kolar, Ardent Health Services, New Jersey: "The service that Navigate is providing is something every market needs to be aware of. Loan counseling is not a luxury, it’s a necessity."
By helping physicians understand and navigate their student loans, you can say goodbye to being ghosted and hello to filled positions and high retention.
Joy Sorensen Navarre is president of Navigate and a recognized leader in student loan relief for physicians. With a focus on datadriven solutions, Navigate - a PracticeLink partner - helps doctors save money on their student loans while minimizing the risk of mistakes that can affect loan forgiveness.
Joy Sorrenson Navarre
