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Committee hears testimony supporting $1.5 million appropriation to expand family medicine residency supports
Summary
Witnesses told the Senate Education Committee that Senate Bill 443 would help grow and retain family medicine physicians in Oregon by funding residency supports and collaborative programs administered through OHSU and the Oregon Residency Collaborative Alliance for Family Medicine.
The Senate Committee on Education held a public hearing March 24, 2025, on Senate Bill 443, which would appropriate $1,500,000 from the general fund to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to be distributed to Oregon Health & Science University’s Area Health Education Center to support the Oregon Residency Collaborative Alliance for Family Medicine (ORCA FM). The bill would fund programs to expand the primary care workforce.
Jackie Wirz, executive director of the Oregon Residency Collaborative Alliance for Family Medicine, told the committee that ORCA FM’s work supports family medicine training across the state and that continued funding is needed to recruit and retain primary care physicians. “Over the last five years, we have grown the number of slots from 124 to 182 positions in family medicine throughout the state,” Wirz said, and she added that as of the prior week there were “over 200 positions for family medicine physicians that were unfilled.”
Wirz described three levels of support the funds would enable: direct supports for residents (financial advising, contract review, DEI consulting), program-to-program learning networks for directors and coordinators, and community-facing programming such as Primary Care Beyond Clinic Walls that links residents to community practice settings.
Carol Newton, a graduating medical student who matched into OHSU’s family medicine residency, and Tian Tian White, a family medicine resident at OHSU, also testified in support, describing decisions to train and remain in Oregon and the benefits of local residency programs for rural clinics.
Proponents told the committee the appropriation would sustain and grow residency pipeline programs that, they said, increase primary care access and bring economic and social benefits when physicians remain to practice in the communities where they trained. The committee closed the public hearing on SB 443 after testimony; no committee action on the bill occurred at this meeting.
