A $100,000 subsidy will attract a medical provider to Beatty, town and local officials hope.

Beatty has been without a doctor since Dr. Beatriz Ang left late last year. Ang came from the Philippines, the two previous doctors in Beatty came from India.

The Nye County Commission and the town of Beatty will split the cost after an agreement approved by commissioners Tuesday.

Beatty Town Board member Theresa Sullivan said Nevada Rural Health Centers had two doctors looking at relocating to Beatty. One opted out for unknown reasons; the other moved to West Wendover.

The proposed incentives include:

* Paying the J-1 visa fee of $10,000 to $15,000;

* Reimbursing tuition up to $20,000 per year;

* Paying $400 per month for a doublewide manufactured home to the Beatty department of health and welfare;

* A sign-on bonus to be negotiated;

* A $50,000 retention bonus after five years of service.

The Beatty Town Advisory Board approved the plan April 23.

The Beatty panel figured Beatty was a difficult place to live, so local boosters needed to make it attractive for a prospective doctor. Sullivan said West Wendover offered a home on the Toana Vista Golf Course.

Beatty found $60,000 left in a capital outlay budget.

Sullivan told Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley the annual salary of the doctor in West Wendover was about $150,000.

"What would stop them after five years from receiving a bonus and then leaving?" Eastley asked.

"Nothing," Sullivan replied. "Living in these rural areas isn't always real comfortable."

Sullivan said Beatty doesn't anticipate needing the full $100,000 but would like to have it available for the next five years.

Assistant Nye County Manager Pam Webster said Beatty is interested in providing a modular home to the doctor.

"We're working toward giving them the medical services there. We have the designated facility, and I think this would be a huge shot in the arm to give them the ability to have some stability in this area," Webster said.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said one of the most important things to have in a community is medical care.

"It really helps that Beatty steps up to the plate and provides the lion's share of the burden," Hollis said.

Nevada Health Centers Interim Chief Executive Officer Dr. Carl Heard said studies show the country will have a shortage of 80,000 to 200,000 physicians nationwide by 2020.

"The areas that will be most readily dismissed as employment areas will be the rural areas. It's the canary in the gold mine, so to speak, is the rural areas.

"That's happening statewide in virtually every opening we have," he said.

Heard said a few years ago they would have a stack of 50 doctors looking for work in Nevada.

"Now we spend two, three, four months searching for a single candidate. That's how deep the staffing shortage is," Heard said. "That's one reason we asked the county and township to help us create a competitive recruiting package."

The West Wendover position has been vacant for three years, he said. Nevada Health Clinics worked with the community there on an incentive package.

In Eureka and Jackpot the company has native-born doctors, Heard said, but elsewhere many doctors went to school at foreign medical schools and are performing their residency in medically under-served areas.

Heard expects to have preliminary discussions next week with two possible candidates that could move to Beatty. One is a graduate of a foreign medical school, the other is a native-born doctor.

"The foreign medical graduate program is a great resource. About 25 percent of the doctors in the country are foreign medical graduates. They have a three-year minimum service," Heard said.

There are 1,500 slots nationwide for foreign doctors, Heard said, or 30 for each state. Each state can sponsor a visa request to the government.

"The difficulty is last year there were only 650 doctors for those 1,500 slots," Heard said. "It has to do with the nationwide staffing process. It also has to do with using the visa waiver program differently."

Improving economic standards in these foreign countries could play a factor in the supply of doctors, he said..

Nevada Health Centers Inc. has 29 clinics including small towns like Austin, Gerlach, Jackpot, Crescent Valley, Carlin, Elko, Eureka, Carson City, Beatty, Amargosa Valley and West Wendover.