A public medical school could generate nearly $1.5 billion for Rhode Island’s economy within its first decade and help shore up the state’s primary care doctors.
That’s the key takeaway of a roughly nine-month feasibility study commissioned by a special legislative commission.
The 104-page report released Monday afternoon is not the final product of the commission charged with investigating how or if a public medical school could bolster the state’s primary care workforce. The final set of recommendations is not due until Jan. 2, 2026.
Legislators were curious to learn if a hypothetical medical school at the University of Rhode Island (URI) could counteract the state’s shrinking fleet of primary care doctors, many of whom are aging out of the workforce. Absent any pipelines for new medical talent, a deficit of around 100 primary doctors is projected by 2030, the report estimates. Other estimates have pegged the current shortage in excess of 300.
The report from Tripp Umbach, consultants based in Kansas City, Missouri, also cites 2024 data from the Rhode Island Health Care System Planning’s foundational report that about 44% of Rhode Island’s physician workforce are nearing retirement age.
Paul Umbach, the founder and president of Tripp Umbach, shared a tentative version of the report with the commission in June. The complete feasibility study envisions an inaugural class of 50 students in fall 2029, which would then ramp up to the full capacity of 100 students by 2033. The medical students would largely train within a community-based model that would see them gain experience in the state’s Federally Qualified Health Centers and community hospitals.
“Rhode Island hospitals, community health centers, and regional partners in Massachusetts and Connecticut have the capacity and interest to host clinical clerkships and residencies,” the report reads. “URI can attract local students by offering B.S./M.D. pathways, early assurance programs, tuition incentives, and service-based loan repayment tied to in-state practice.”
The consultants now project the school would generate about $196 million a year in economic activity, would employ about 1,335 people, and contribute $4.5 million in state and local taxes. They said the economic benefits would come from the hiring of staff and faculty, student and faculty spending in the community, research growth, and the new companies that often start up from such research as well as small businesses that cater to a university community.
Those economic benefits would not come gratis. The firm is recommending $175 million upfront from a public/private mix of “early philanthropic gifts, institutional contributions, and long-term public commitments.” That money would support finding the school’s dean, building out the faculty and staff and gaining accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. About $62.5 million of this seed funding would go toward upgrading, retrofitting or building facilities. Operating costs and expenses for IT and simulation are also bundled into this lump sum.
State contributions would amount to about $20 million in an initial round of public funding, plus $22.5 million annually beginning in 2029 upon entry of the school’s first class. These funds would be separate from any existing appropriations to URI, the report notes, and the annual state support would largely cover medical education at the school. Expanding residency options for med students and offering incentives like loan repayment — perks, the report notes, which would help keep graduates in Rhode Island — would need separate appropriations.
The report adds, “While start-up deficits are anticipated for any new medical school, they are offset over time by tuition revenue, clinical partnerships, research growth, and operational efficiencies.”
The project timeline could be pushed back a year to accommodate any delays in the school’s launch — such as finding an appropriate dean, a process that would ideally need to be completed by 2026 — but the feasibility study recommends the school open “no later” than 2030.
“While Tripp Umbach believes funding conditions will improve in future decades, projections for federal research support in the 2030s are uncertain,” the report reads.
The per-student costs the state would need to absorb are relatively modest compared to other states, the report suggests: “[T]he U.S. average for annual state support per medical student is $275,000, with Connecticut being $189,565 and Massachusetts at $97,975; therefore, Rhode Island’s $52,250 per student request within the feasibility study is approximately half as much per student as in Massachusetts, almost four times less than in Connecticut, and nearly five times less than the U.S. average.”
The final draft of the feasibility study will inform the commission’s ultimate suggestions. The public still has a chance to comment on the report’s findings, during a public hearing scheduled for the panel’s next meeting on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 5 p.m. in the Senate Lounge of the Rhode Island State House.
The legislative panel was created through legislation passed in June 2024. The following month, its 21 members were appointed by former Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, who died in April.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
