Paying back student loans is a fact of life for most people who have graduated from medical, dental or other professional programs. But some professionals in the medical field are defaulting on their loans, so much so that Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala recently released the names of 1,402 of them on the web.

These physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, dentists and others are now disqualified for payment by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The defaulters all failed to pay back Health Education Assistance Loans (HEAL), and owe more than $107 million altogether.

The good news is that UCSF has no graduates on that list [http://www.defaulteddocs.dhhs.gov/ ]. Although UCSF students typically do not participate in the HEAL program, which is viewed as a last resort for funding, the institution's rate of default in all financial aid programs is very low, said Nancy Kull, director of student financial services.

"On occasion we have a student default and it's usually somebody who didn't complete the program or had serious health problems or other types of problems," said Kull, who has worked in financial aid at UCSF for almost 30 years.

Why has UCSF been so successful in churning out graduates who are so diligent and responsible? "The main reason is we're dealing with professional programs and when the students get out, they make good salaries and are able to repay their loans," Kull said. "People take repaying student loans very seriously these days."

The majority of students in UCSF's medical, dental and pharmacy programs take out student loans. "So many students are borrowing now," Kull said. Indeed, last year, 76 percent of medical students received some type of financial aid; dental students, 87 percent; and pharmacy students, 83 percent. The current tuition and fees for four years at UCSF's medical school is $35,978; dental school is $34,358; and pharmacy is $23,036.

Not all health professionals are as successful in paying back their loans as are UCSF graduates. Chiropractors are the worst about paying back the HEAL loans. Other health professionals on the HHS list of defaulters include dentists, physicians and podiatrists. California has the majority of defaulters, followed by Georgia and Florida, according to the online report.

Of the UC schools, only Irvine and Los Angeles have graduates on the HEAL list and a total of only three: two in allopathic medicine and one in dentistry; altogether they owe less than $50,000.

An institution called Life University has 170 defaulters who owe $14,016,542 in HEAL loans, according to the website. The Los Angeles College of Chiropractic has 64 graduates on the list, who owe a total of $4,733,768.

California health professionals have defaulted on a total of $19,939,648 of HEAL loans, with $11 million of that owed by chiropractors, almost $4 million by dental professionals, $2 million by those in allopathic medicine and $1 million by podiatrists.

by Paula Murphy

1st appeared 2/04/98

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