Senate Education Committee advances amended HB 368 to study, plan expansion of Idaho medical education

BOISE, Idaho — The Senate Education Committee voted unanimously with one absence to advance House Bill 368 on medical education, sending the bill to the fourteenth order of business for possible amendment after hours of testimony from university representatives, practicing physicians, residents and medical students.

The bill directs the State Board of Education to form a work group to develop an undergraduate medical education expansion plan for Idaho; the amendment the committee discussed would change a mandatory reduction in WWAMI-funded seats to a discretionary reduction and add legislative and Idaho-institution representatives to the work group.

Ian Goodhue, who identified himself as representing the University of Washington School of Medicine and the WWAMI medical education program, told the committee that WWAMI has a five-decade partnership with Idaho and urged support for the amended bill. “For over 50 years, the Idaho legislature, through the state board and the University of Idaho, have partnered with the University of Washington to educate Idaho medical students in Idaho for Idaho patients,” Goodhue said. He added that Idaho still ranks fiftieth in physicians per capita and that “we know that we can be part of the solution.”

State Rep. Dustin Manwaring, the bill sponsor, outlined the amendment…