Dr. Genia Taitano, a surgeon at Kona’s Alii Health Center and trauma medical director at Kona Community Hospital, continues to pay down over $350,000 in student loans, but the remaining debt will soon be wiped out in the state’s effort to keep her and other health care workers in Hawaii.

Gov. Josh Green’s office has announced the second round of applications for scholarship relief beginning July 1 to the next group of health care workers, following the first group that included Taitano and nearly 500 other recipients.

Green, in partnership with the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii and the state Department of Health, developed the Healthcare Education Loan Repayment Program (HELP) to pay off up to $50,000 for each of two years as long as health care providers commit to accepting public insurance for at least 30% of their patient care claims.

As a medical doctor, Green disclosed in December that he had been “ticking away at that debt for 30 years,” but declared, “I’m debt-free today.”

Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a text on Wednesday that parents and relatives of young health care providers frequently express to him that the HELP program empowers their children to remain in Hawaii and care for local patients.

“I’d say it has happened 30 or more times,” Green said. “So the HELP program ends up keeping providers here and keeps families together. This effect will grow exponentially as we’re able to award more HELP recipients.”

HELP was launched in September to offer debt relief for educational loans incurred by licensed and certified health care professionals in Hawaii.

The program receives $30 million from the state Legislature, an additional $5 million over two years from Hawaii island philanthropists Marc and Lynne Benioff and nearly $1 million annually in federal funding. The Hawaii Dental Service also funded $300,000 for dentists.

Health care professionals can get up to $50,000 a year of debt relief for each of the two years they commit to working in the islands.

Taitano will receive the maximum of $50,000 a year.

“Now with the assistance from HELP, it’s still sort of an uphill battle,” she said. “But the ability to potentially pay that off … through public service loan forgiveness is more feasible.”

Since the program began, 1,900 health professionals applied and 1,801 were declared eligible. HELP supports 500 recipients, with an additional 350 undergoing processing.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in biology from UH, Taitano graduated from JABSOM in 2016. She then completed seven years of general surgery training, a surgical critical care fellowship and a colorectal fellowship on the mainland — California and Ohio — before commencing her career at Alii Health Center six months ago.

“My debt was significant for medical school, and then interest accumulated during my training,” Taitano said. “I made what little payments I could.”

In announcing the second round of applications on Wednesday, Green said the state and Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Center, known as AHEC, have received a “tremendous response to the aggressive and far-reaching loan repayment program” that helps to alleviates the state’s increasing shortage of physicians and other health care professionals who often leave for more affordable states.

Taitano said she sees a significant shortage of providers of all kinds in Hawaii and attributes the issue to the islands’ geographic isolation and the high cost of living.

“I’ve had classmates who told me that they couldn’t come back to Hawaii because the cost of living was too much and essentially their paycheck wasn’t going to help them pay off their debts,” she said.

The typical health care professional in Hawaii carries an average student debt of $250,000, according to AHEC director Dr. Kelley Withy, who is based at JABSOM.

There are over 12,000 licensed physicians across the state, Withy said, but only 3,599 provide patient care. And not all practicing physicians work full-time, so they collectively offer about the full-time equivalent of only 3,022 physicians.

Last year, the state faced a physician shortage totaling 757: 318 on Oahu, 206 on Hawaii island, 181 on Maui and 52 on Kauai.

Hawaii usually loses about 100 doctors annually who move away, retire or die, and gains about 100 doctors, ultimately resulting in no increase, Withy said.

So, if the state can recruit 200 doctors each year, including by offering debt forgiveness, Hawaii’s perennial physician shortage could be eliminated as early as 2030, she said.

“The idea behind the loan repayment is — if you owe a quarter million and you can’t buy a house, why would you want to stay in Hawaii?” Withy said. “We’re gonna pay off that quarter- million, so you can buy a house and stay in Hawaii.”

Taitano would “love to own a house, but it’s almost impossible in Hawaii because it’s so expensive.”

With the HELP program helping to pay off her educational loans, Taitano now sees the possibility of home ownership.

All health care professionals with Hawaii ties — regardless if they studied out-of-state — are eligible as long as they serve in Hawaii for two years.

The eligible amounts vary depending on health care specialties, where they practice in Hawaii and the size of their debt.

The HELP program gives priority to specialists in primary care and behavioral health, as well as those practicing in rural areas, including Waimanalo, Waianae, Wahiawa, Hauula, Laie, Kahuku, Haleiwa and Waialua on Oahu.

For Taitano in particular, HELP classifies Kona as a rural “critical access” area because of its limited resources.

“For a surgeon, who, like myself, is practicing in a rural area, HELP is one of the only loan forgiveness programs that applies to me, other than federal public loan forgiveness,” she said.

—

HELP program

For more information or to apply, visit ahec.hawaii.edu/ hawaii-help/