Anthem Medicaid Rural Medicine Scholarship now offered at Murray State University, available to health-care students

Murray State Univ. anniversary logo

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicaid in Kentucky has endowed a scholarship to support up to four students a year at Murray State University who are majoring in a health-care field. 

The $100,000 Anthem Medicaid Rural Medicine Scholarship is meant to expand the number of frontline workers in Western Kentucky and increase access to care and improve health equity in the state's rural areas. 

“What an exciting opportunity for our health-care students,” Murray State President Bob Jackson said in a news release. “We are thrilled to partner with Anthem Medicaid to create this much-needed endowed scholarship. This gift helps us achieve our mission of preparing the next generation of leaders who will make a difference in their communities through health care.”

Scholarship applicants must be full-time students at Murray, majoring in a health care-related field, including nursing, pre-medicine or pre-dentistry. The recipients must plan to work in Western Kentucky for at least three years after graduating. The scholarship will be open to students beginning in fall 2023.

The scholarships were announced soon after the Kentucky Hospital Association released its 2022 Workforce Survey Report, that found Kentucky hospitals reported more than 13,000 vacancies across 13 professional groups in 2021. Among those vacancies, nearly 22% of them were among registered nurses. The report looks at non-physician hospital labor force in Kentucky.