@article{1dc7d52394a64985a6bc17208d773ec2,
title = "A Wasted Opportunity During a Pandemic: The Foreign Medical Graduates in the USA",
abstract = "In this brief note from the field, we address an essential issue of non-inclusion of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) practicing in the US into the healthcare disaster response in the current pandemic. Because FMGs represent a significant share of the entire country{\textquoteright}s physician workforce, it seems not prudent to ignore the need to address the current immigration barriers affecting the crucial healthcare needs during this pandemic. Being subjects of the ongoing complex bureaucracy complicated by recent anti-immigrant steps, FMGs that practice for years on temporary (H1B) visas cannot fully join COVID-19 forces. In addition, these physicians face multiple challenges related to their health protection, protection of their immediate family, job security, and the potential risk of being deported. We believe that physicians{\textquoteright} immigration status should no longer be disregarded outside of academic interest. It carries the same importance as other public health issues, especially in severe healthcare crises like this pandemic.",
keywords = "H1-B visa, Healthcare legislation, Immigrant physicians, Pandemic, Physician shortage, Primary care, USA, Underserved",
author = "Kamalika Roy and Natalia Solenkova and Parth Mehta",
note = "Funding Information: FMGs are physicians who completed their medical schools outside of the US. They go through the same requirements to enter residency training in the US to obtain a license to practice medicine. The requirements include multistep board examinations, like the US medical school graduates, and an additional certification by the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), and a visa sponsorship. The vast majority of FMGs obtain residency training under an exchange visitor visa sponsored by the ECFMG for residency and fellowship training []. However, after the training, physicians can only practice independently on an H1B visa. As J1 is an exchange visitor program, it requires the beneficiary to return to their home country after their training for at least two years. However, given the decades-long shortage of physicians in the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), in 1994, North Dakota senator Kent Conrad introduced a program, popularly known as Conrad 30, waiving the two-year home country return requirement, in exchange for serving in the HPSA areas for at least three years []. Other Interested Government Agencies (IGA) grant such waivers to recruit these board-eligible or board-certified physicians in the HPSA and rural areas. Most J1 physician trainees avail these programs, as training and practice requirements in the US are very different than those in their home country, even if they had to return. While the waiver programs only waive the need to return, these physicians still need an H1B visa sponsored by the prospective employers to initiate practice in these underserved areas. H1B visas are often issued for three years but, more recently, for a lesser duration. This visa needs to be renewed every few years, for a maximum of six years, and it can be renewed beyond the six-year period when the sponsoring employer files an employment-based permanent residency application. Even with an approved permanent residency application, a physician might have to wait in the line (and renew their H1B visa every few years) for years to decades, depending upon their country of origin. This note from the field focuses on these FMGs who completed training and are on an H1B visa, either within the first six years or stuck in a backlog for permanent residency for years. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.",
year = "2021",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1007/s10903-021-01243-2",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "23",
pages = "1364--1368",
journal = "Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health",
issn = "1557-1912",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "6",
}