The secret to retaining health workers? This Florida hospital is paying off up to $20,000 in student loan debt

Brad Betz is proof you can work full time, have a family and be in school to better your career.

And it can be done without accumulating a pile of debt.

The 51-year-old is a cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse at Physicians Regional Healthcare System in Collier County. He has taken advantage of employee benefits to avoid lingering student loan debt that hangs over others’ heads like black cloud.

He no longer has student loan debt, in part because of the hospital’s tuition assistance program which enabled him to pay down his school bills.

Physicians Regional is owned by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, where the hospital and company recently added payment assistance to student loan debt as a workforce benefit.

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The hospital will pay as much as $20,000 for each qualified employee’s student loans.

The goal is to retain employees and attract a strong workforce, especially frontline nurses, technicians, therapists and other clinicians, according to Physicians Regional.

“We are excited to have a new way to recognize our employees for all that they do and we want to support them,” Scott Lowe, chief executive officer of Physicians Regional, said in a news release. “Through these benefits, we hope (to) ease the burden of student debt and allow employees to focus on achieving their goals and career success.”

Hospitals across Florida and the U.S. have been facing a workforce shortage for several years that accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are developing strategies to recruit employees in a competitive marketplace against other health-care industries vying for the same workers.

The workforce hardships for hospitals include stress, burnout, fear of infection from COVID-19, and opportunities for some, namely registered nurses, to dramatically increase their earnings working as travel nurses, according to industry leaders.

The Florida Hospital Association and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida released study findings last fall that show the state is facing a shortfall of 59,100 nurses by 2035, which includes a 12% shortage of 37,400 registered nurses.

In addition, Florida will also have a 30% shortage of 21,700 licensed practical nurses. The two groups commissioned the study, which was conducted by IHS Markit, an analytics firm.

Earlier this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $125 million for nursing education for the 2022-23 fiscal year, to increase the number of programs for nursing education programs and for recruiting nursing instructors to address shortfalls that limit the number of slots of students.

'I’m getting the word out'

Since Physicians Regional recently added the student loan debt assistance program, Betz has been promoting it to colleagues, along with the benefit of tuition assistance which he’s been tapping for quite some time.

“I am getting the word out,” he said. “I know several of (the employees) are actually doing it.”

Betz is working on his bachelor of science degree in nursing through the online college, Western Governors University, based in Utah. He anticipates graduating in November 2023. He plans to get a master’s degree after that.

Employed at Physicians Regional for 3 1/2 years, he’s taken advantage of the $5,000 in annual tax-free tuition reimbursement offered by the hospital. That’s helped with his cash flow where he has been able to pay off $9,000 he had in student loan debt.

He has a wife and two grown children, so knocking out debt is important.

“I have no student loan debt right now,” Betz said, adding that having such debt is “not fun.”

The primary means to qualify for the loan repayment program is be an active and regular or part-time employee in a designated clinical position at Physicians Regional.

Full-time registered nurses and medical technologists are eligible to receive $416.66 per month towards their loans to a maximum contribution of $20,000, according to Physicians Regional.

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Full-time employees in many other clinical positions are eligible to receive $208.33 monthly to a maximum contribution of $10,000. Part-time employees in eligible positions will receive 50% of the stated amounts.

The contribution is applied toward the balance of the debt and employees must pay and remain current on their loan’s monthly minimum payments.

“There is no minimum loan amount and there are no long-term employment requirements,” Physicians Regional spokeswoman Brittney Thoman said.

In addition, the tuition assistance of up to $5,000 annually has been expanded and can be used for continuing education related to any role within the hospital as opposed to the earlier policy that said it could only be used for studies in their current field of work.

And a new employee reimbursement program involves licensure or certification renewals required for all job classifications which can be used for any license or certification testing renewal that may not have been covered earlier by the hospital.

What is the competition doing?

None of the hospital competition in Southwest Florida that are much larger than Physicians Regional is helping employees pay off student loan debt.

Physicians Regional has roughly 2,000 employees at its two main hospitals campuses with a combined 209 beds. Those are the 109-bed Physicians Regional at Pine Ridge campus and 100-bed Physicians Regional at Collier Boulevard.

Last October the system began leasing a long-term care hospital, Landmark Hospital, in North Naples to convert into a 50-bed general acute care hospital.

NCH Healthcare System offers tuition reimbursement

Physicians Regional’s competition in Collier, the NCH Healthcare System with a combined 716 beds at two campuses and 4,800 employees, has offered tuition reimbursement and other benefits to attract and retain its workforce.

NCH offers tuition reimbursement up to the full amount after one year on the job as a full-time employee and up to 50% for part-time employees after one year on the job.

The nonprofit hospital system also offers continuing education classes and paid nursing internships.

“In addition to (those benefits), NCH is also looking at additional student loan forgiveness opportunities for 2022-23,” NCH spokesman Shawn McConnell said.

Lee Health offers tuition assistance

Lee Health, the publicly operated hospital system in Lee County with 15,000 employees, does not help employees with student loan debt but it has a robust tuition assistance program, according to spokesman Jonathon Little.

Employees are eligible for up to $2,500 a year in tuition reimbursement for areas of critical need and $1,300 a year for areas of non-critical need. All employees are eligible after one year of service at Lee Health while part-time employees will receive a prorated amount, he said.

Lee Health also offers grants once a year which can be used for costs not covered by tuition reimbursement, with the amount determined by need and the amount available for each grant for that year, he said.

Lee Health operates four general acute-care hospitals with a combined 1,865 beds and a 134-bed children’s hospital.