KRS 164.936: Healthcare Worker Loan Relief Program -- Purpose -- Duties -- Trust

fund.

(1) The General Assembly hereby establishes the statewide Healthcare Worker

Loan Relief Program designed to be in alignment with the federally funded

state loan repayment program authorized under KRS 211.165 in providing

student loan repayment for eligible healthcare workers within the

Commonwealth. The Healthcare Worker Loan Relief Program shall be

administered by the University of Kentucky through the Center of Excellence in

Rural Health, and all costs associated with the program, including the

reimbursement of any expenses incurred by the center in its administration of

the program, shall be funded by state appropriations and other funds held in

the healthcare worker loan relief fund, which shall be excluded from the

comprehensive funding model established in KRS 164.092.

(2) The board of trustees of the University of Kentucky, on behalf of the Center of

Excellence in Rural Health, shall adopt policies for the administration of the

program that are in alignment with the policies implemented in the

administration of KRS 211.165 and the federally funded state loan repayment

program it authorizes, and shall include:

(a) The professional, certification, education, employment, and worksite

eligibility requirements, except that the professional requirements shall

also grant eligibility to ophthalmologists, optometrists, and audiologists;

(b) Student loan eligibility requirements;

(c) A process to consider applications from eligible healthcare workers,

except the policy shall include an application cycle that is open at least

biannually;

(d) Program admission guidelines;

(e) The conditions under which admitted healthcare workers shall receive

awards;

(f) To the extent that funding is available, the process for determining award

amounts, which shall include the tiering of award amounts based on

provider type, student loan amounts, and other factors, except that the

policy shall not require a dollar-for-dollar match component from admitted

healthcare workers' employers; and

(g) Procedures to provide repayment to loan servicers.

(3) (a) The healthcare worker loan relief fund is hereby created as a trust fund in

the State Treasury to be administered by the University of Kentucky on

behalf of the Center of Excellence in Rural Health for the purpose of

providing loan repayment as described in this section.

(b) The trust fund shall consist of state general fund appropriations, gifts and

grants from public and private sources, and federal funds. All moneys

included in the fund shall be appropriated for the purposes set forth in this

section.

(c) Any unallotted or unencumbered balances in the trust fund shall be

invested as provided in KRS 42.500(9). Income earned from the

investments shall be credited to the trust fund.

(d) Notwithstanding KRS 45.229, any fund balance at the close of the fiscal

year shall not lapse but shall be carried forward to the next fiscal year and

continuously appropriated only for the purposes specified in this section.