Bloomberg donates $600 million to historically Black medical schools

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In a move to improve racial wealth equity, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a new $600 million gift this week to help bolster the endowments of the nation's four historically Black medical schools –  Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science, Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine.

Seed funding will also be given to support the creation of the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, a new medical school in New Orleans.

The investment is part of the Greenwood Initiative, an effort that seeks to advance racial wealth equity, including addressing systemic underinvestment in Black institutions and communities. The funding is intended to fuel the historically Black medical schools' commitments to diversifying the medical field and training the next generation of doctors.

Increasing the schools' endowments will strengthen their financial stability and institutional capacity to respond to the rising costs of tuition, innovative research and operations, said Bloomberg.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine will each receive a gift of $175 million, and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science will receive $75 million. The new funding will more than double three of the four medical schools' endowments. Funding levels were determined by current class size and anticipated growth.

In addition, the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, an HBCU medical school being developed in New Orleans, will receive a $5 million grant. The school is a partnership between Xavier University of Louisiana – an educator of Black students who go on to graduate from medical school – and Ochsner Health, a nonprofit academic healthcare provider in the Gulf South.

Research published in JAMA has shown that Black patients have better health outcomes and receive medical care more frequently when they are treated by Black physicians. Further, Black patients are 34% more likely to receive preventative care if seen by Black doctors.

Yet data from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows that while the U.S. population is 13% Black, only 7% of medical school graduates and less than 6% of all practicing doctors are Black.

The four historically Black medical schools alone graduate around half of all Black doctors in the U.S. but have significantly underfunded endowments as a result of systemic funding inequities, including lower federal and state support, said Bloomberg.

Since the early 1900s, a combination of factors – including the impacts of the Flexner report and other discriminatory practices and attitudes – have led to the closing of 10 Black medical schools in the U.S.

THE LARGER TREND

In 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave $100 million to the four historically Black medical schools, which at the time was the largest philanthropic gift from a single donor to these institutions.

The 2020 gift also helped to reduce the student debt of nearly 1,000 future Black doctors. Less debt has given graduates more freedom to practice what they choose and where the need is greatest, said Bloomberg. More than 50% of the graduates benefiting from the support selected primary care specialties, including internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, and the top non-primary care areas chosen, were emergency medicine and psychiatry.

Additionally, many of the graduates opted to work in underserved communities, urban communities and public hospitals.

In 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave an additional $6 million to the four historically Black medical schools to expand their efforts to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines to underserved populations in their local communities.

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.