A newly formed organization got a boost from Medford City Council to help attract health care providers to the Rogue Valley.

On Thursday, the council unanimously approved a $23,000 grant to the Southern Oregon Alliance of Physicians & Providers (SOAPP), which started up about a year ago.

“We all recognize community health is a priority in Southern Oregon,” Mayor Randy Sparacino said. “If we don’t provide health care in our region, we’re not going to recruit and attract the people we want in our community.”

The money will be used to recruit primary care providers, specifically by helping provide lodging, meals and transportation as part of recruitment efforts.

The goal is to increase the number of primary care physicians and providers locally.

SOAPP’s budget is $75,000.

“We’re primarily focused on primary care providers,” said Brent Kell, the SOAPP board chair, who is also CEO of Valley Immediate Care.

He said SOAPP hopes to woo care providers by showing them the advantages of living here.

“We are bragging about the quality of life in the valley,” he said.

But potential recruits often are attracted to other parts of the country where they might earn double what they do in the valley. The higher income helps young families and helps pays student loans, Kell said.

“The pay schedule is not that great here,” he said.

One bright spot came from Oregon House Bill 2902 in 2013, which required insurance companies to reimburse at the same rate as the health care provided by physician assistants and doctors, Kell said.

Another issue is that Oregon has one of the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the nation, he said.

SOAPP will use the money from the city of Medford and other sources to bring recruits to the valley, familiarize them with the benefits of living here and give them time to enjoy outdoor activities, entertainment and restaurants.

If a local provider’s office hires these new recruits, SOAPP would be reimbursed for its efforts.

Kell said that one thing the valley needs is a residency program that can also train and attract new recruits. Other counties in the area do have residency programs.

SOAPP analyzed how many primary care providers are working in the region. Kell said it’s about 250, but the Oregon Health Authority calculates the number as 200 more than that.

The discrepancy, Kell said, is because many providers continue to maintain their licenses but aren’t currently working.

To have a sufficient number of primary care providers in the region, Kell said, “I would say no less than 50 more, but let’s say between 50 and 100.”

Kell said he and others visited Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland to see if they could raise awareness of what Southern Oregon has to offer.

“Many of them didn’t know anything about us,” he said.