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MD Plan to Create 375 Hospital Jobs in Impoverished Areas

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BALTIMORE (AP) - State regulators have approved a plan that's expected to create about 375 hospital jobs for residents of impoverished areas in Baltimore and across Maryland.

State regulators reached a last-minute agreement on Wednesday requiring participating hospitals to pay a share of the cost of the program and the rest to come from hospital rate increases. The Health Services Cost Review Commission has agreed to make up to $10 million available for the program in fiscal 2017.

Hospitals applying for a share of those funds would need to provide a 50 percent match, bringing the total available for the program up to $15 million.

In April, administrators at Johns Hopkins Hospital had called for 1,000 new jobs in an effort to counter the despair they witnessed in the unrest following Freddie Gray's death while in police custody.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.