Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change our server in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7128 Volume 316 News Saturday 31 January 1998 Doctors who default on loans shamed on the internet Doctors and other health professionals in the United States who have not repaid their student loans have had their names publicised on the internet and are to be disqualified for payment by the Medicare and Medicaid programmes, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced. The move is a radical attempt to recover over $107m (£67m) owed by doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, osteopaths, and chiropractors who took out federally guaranteed health education assistance loans which were offered to impoverished students in the health professions. The loans were made by private banks, credit unions, pension funds, and state lending institutions but were guaranteed by the federal government. Over 160,000 students have used the scheme, which was established in 1979. About 5% of borrowers fail to pay back their loan, which on average is $76,000. The cost of a medical education in the United States, however, typically exceeds $150,000, and the actual loan burden of a graduating doctor often exceeds that amount. Graduating doctors have to start paying back their loans within nine months of graduating from professional school. Typically, the young graduate enters a postgraduate training period of 3-8 years and receives low wages, which are insufficient to repay loans during this time. It is therefore not uncommon for a practitioner still to be paying off loans 20-30 years after graduating from medical school. The names of 1,402 health professionals who have not paid back their loans are to be published in the federal register and are listed on an internet website (http://www.defaulteddocs.dhhs.gov). Dr Claude Earl Fox, an administrator in the Health Resources Service Administration, said: "We can't let a few bad apple defaulters get away with taking advantage of the American public and bringing dishonour to their profession." Deborah Josefson San Francisco Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline