House Bill Aims to Increase Number of Rural Doctors

OKLAHOMA CITY – The House of Representatives today passed a measure aimed at encouraging more doctors to practice in rural areas of the state.

House Bill 2511, by House Speaker Charles McCall (R-22, Atoka), would potentially reduce a doctor’s tax liability by up to $25,000 annually if he or she practices in a rural community for the tax year beginning in 2020.

The bill defines rural communities as any municipality with a population of less than 25,000 and that is also located at least 25 miles from the nearest municipality with a population greater than 25,000.

Speaker McCall said the bill is essentially a pilot program.

“Oklahoma ranks near the bottom of states for access to primary care in rural areas, and the majority of those primary care physicians we do have in rural Oklahoma are closing in on retirement,” the Speaker noted via a written statement.

“We need a multifaceted approach to improving access to care in our smaller communities, and we have to find ways to incentivize providers to move into and practice in those communities. This would allow those doctors to take that money they saved and invest it in their practices, to pay student loans and to invest in the local community.”

The bill strictly limits who may qualify for the reduction however. The exemption would only apply to doctors who practice within a closely-defined rural area and who also reside in the same county where their qualifying income was earned.

Perhaps the most significant qualifier though is that the allowance would only be available to those doctors who graduated from a medical or osteopathic school in Oklahoma. Currently none of the state’s medical schools are ranked within the nation’s Top 50. The University of Oklahoma has the state’s highest ranking, coming 72nd on the latest US News’ list.

As written then, an Oklahoma resident who won scholarship to one of the nation’s top schools (such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UCLA) with the sole intent of returning to rural practice in the state would be denied access to this program.

Other limits to the program include that a doctor may claim the exemption for no more than five years, and the exemption program would end once a total of $1 million has been claimed statewide.

Having previously passed through the House committee stages with unanimous votes, House Bill 2511 passed out of the House today by a vote of 98-2 and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Representative Todd Russ (R-55, Cordell) co-authored the bill. As lead Senate author, State Senator Roger Thompson (R-8, Okmulgee) will lead work to advance the bill in the upper chamber.