Gilberto Cota practiced medicine in Mexicali, Mexico for three
years before coming to the United States.
But when he arrived in the country, the 32-year-old was unable
to become a licensed doctor without completing the United States
Medical Licensing Exam, so instead he worked as a diabetes care
coordinator.
That is, until he joined a UCLA program that would train him to
practice in the United States. In 2005, Cota enrolled in the UCLA
International Medical Graduates program, which recruits physicians
who have graduated from medical schools in Latin American countries
and helps them compete for primary care residency training
positions. The program is housed in the Department of Family
Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.1
Now, with the help of a combined $100,000 donation from Molina
Healthcare, Cota and 13 other currently enrolled students will be
able to receive some form of stipend that will allow them to
temporarily stop working and focus instead on studying for the
United States Medical Licensing Exams.
Dr. Michelle Bholat, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the
Department of Family Medicine at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA and co-founder of the International Medical
Graduates program2, said the donation money
will be used to pay for stipends for the students and for
educational costs, such as hiring faculty to teach in the
program.
“I’m very thankful for this opportunity and the
donation, because I know there are a lot of doctors who can’t
practice because they can’t pass the exams,” Cota
said.
The newly created program is one year old and the first cohort
of students will graduate next summer.
Molina Healthcare and UCLA’s program both aim at providing
health care to some of California’s most underserved
communities, specifically focusing on Hispanic areas and training
doctors from Latin American countries.
In California, 20 percent of people live in medically
underrepresented areas ““ 3.8 million Hispanics make up 31
percent of the state’s population, but only represent four
percent of the state’s physicians, according to recent data
from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development.
The program aims for most of its graduates to work in Hispanic
or other underrepresented minority communities once they have
secured residencies,
“There is no (other) program in Los Angeles or in the
country that takes physicians from Latin American countries and
brings them to the U.S. to become residents,” Bholat
said.
Dr. J. Mario Molina, an alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of
Business who donated $50,000 to the program, pointed to some
benefits he sees in providing Hispanic communities with Hispanic
doctors.
“With the growing changes in demographics throughout
California and the United States, it is important for patients to
feel comfortable with their doctors,” Molina said. “We
understand that cultural competency and linguistics are an
important aspect of health care.”
Molina Healthcare is a company that helps patients who have
faced problems in receiving quality health care, including those
covered under Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program and the Healthy Families Program.
The company and Molina, its chief executive officer, each
donated $50,000 to the International Medical Graduates program to
help provide funding for those currently enrolled in the
International Medical Graduates program and to encourage other
Hispanic and minority leaders to support the fledgling program.
Bholat said Molina Healthcare’s most recent donation is
part of its history of support for UCLA community medical programs
that help recruit minority students in the field of health care.
Molina Healthcare did not put any parameters on how the donation
should be used, giving it to be used “as they see fit to
support the program,” Molina said.
Because Molina is a top Hispanic business leader in Los Angeles,
Bholat said she hopes his support will tell other companies that
the International Medical Graduates program is worth their support
and the investment of their time and money.
CORRECTION: This sentence was added for
clarification.
CORRECTION: The attribution for Dr. Michelle
Bholat was corrected.