Contact Info
Primary Care
The ORHPC Primary Care program promotes access to primary care for underserved Minnesotans
Throughout the U.S., there are geographic areas, socio–economic factors, populations, and facilities with too few primary care, dental and mental health providers and services. The federal Bureau of Health Workforce works with state partners to determine which of these should be “shortage designations,” and are therefore eligible to receive certain federal resources.
The Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care (ORHPC) is Minnesota's federally designated State Primary Care Office with the responsibility of administering specific state and federal resources to develop and preserve access to health care.
Grants
The safety net of community health centers, local health departments and public hospitals provide health care access to medically underserved urban populations. We support the effort to develop and preserve access through:
Health Care Workforce Clinician Retention Toolkit
The National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network (3RNet) and the National Rural Health Resource Center, working in partnership with the Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care and its state counterparts in Wisconsin and Indiana, developed the multi–part Health Care Workforce Clinician Retention Toolkit below to support health care recruitment and retention efforts, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
Technical assistance
The Office of Rural Health and Primary Care (ORHPC) provides a variety of financial assistance services, to support safety net hospitals and clinics in Minnesota.
- Technical assistance to sites, data collection, preparation and submission of applications for federal shortage area designation
Workforce support
We support communities needing to recruit and retain providers using financial incentives. Some designations also help communities recruit foreign physicians through a waiver of certain immigration rules.
- Minnesota Health Care Loan Forgiveness and Repayment Programs
- Federal National Health Service Corps (NHSC)
- Federal Faculty Loan Repayment Program
- J-1 visa waivers which permit internationally trained physicians to work in medically underserved areas in Minnesota
For more information, contact:
Brenda Flattum
brenda.flattum@state.mn.us
651–201–3870