Health officials say throughout the nation, a growing problem is the shortage of physicians, particularly in rural areas. Arnot Health is always trying to reach people even in the most remote parts of their service region and as our Bill Mich tells us, a new grant will help the health care provider accomplish that goal.

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SOUTHERN TIER, N.Y. -- It is a national health care problem, the effects of which can be seen on a local level.

"I don't know if it is anymore of a problem here than anywhere else, but the bottom line is, especially with the Affordable Care Act, there are just not enough physicians being put into the workforce right now," said Eleanor Callanan, the Arnot Health Manager of Provided Recruitment and Retention.

New York State, though its Doctors Across New York program, is attempting to help fix the problem by awarding grants to health care providers. Arnot Health announced Wednesday that it received a grant of up to $100,000 that would fund the training and placement of physicians in their service region.

"We were able to demonstrate that our rural practices provide care to significantly underserved areas and significantly underserved patients," said Callanan.

Arnot Health officials say their goal is to try to keep the physicians who trained in New York State working in the state and serving the area's they know best. And the hope is that with this new money available, Arnot Health will be able to bring quality physicians to provide care to rural residents.

"It's difficult sometimes to convince physicians that a rural practice is the type of practice that they want. So the state being able to provide subsidies to provide us with incentives to bring the physicians here to practice is a real help for us," said Callanan.

This one grant certainly won't solve what has become nationwide issue in the Southern Tier, but will provide people with access to quality health care they may not have had before.