Official Statement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Partnership for Healthcare Innovation (NPHI), the leading organization representing nonprofit, community-based hospice and advanced illness care providers, urges the U.S. Department of Education to withdraw its proposed changes to federal student loan eligibility and repayment terms for graduate medical education programs. These revisions would raise financial barriers for future clinicians and further strain an already fragile workforce pipeline across hospice, palliative care, and other advanced illness specialties.
Hospice and palliative care providers nationwide are already grappling with persistent staffing shortages that limit access to timely, high-quality, community-based care. Increasing long-term debt burdens—particularly in fields that are mission-driven and often lower-paid—will deter prospective clinicians and disproportionately impact specialties that can least afford additional barriers to recruitment.
At a time when federal policy is focused on improving access to interdisciplinary, person-centered care for people with advanced illness, this proposal moves in the opposite direction. Strengthening, not constraining, the clinical workforce pipeline is essential to meeting national care needs and ensuring that patients and families receive the compassionate, expert support they deserve.
Tom Koutsoumpas, Founder & CEO of NPHI, added:
“Now is the moment to invest in the clinicians who care for our nation’s most vulnerable patients — not erect new obstacles that make these vital professions harder to enter and harder to sustain. Hospice and advanced illness care depend on a skilled, dedicated workforce, and policies that increase financial burdens will only deepen existing shortages. We stand ready to work with the Department of Education and federal partners to promote solutions that strengthen the workforce and uphold access to high-quality health care.”
NPHI urges the Department to reconsider this proposal and engage with healthcare leaders to develop student loan policies that support, rather than undermine, the next generation of clinicians caring for individuals with advanced illness.
