N.Y. Public Health Law § 903: Primary care physician loan repayment program

§ 903. Primary care physician loan repayment program. 1. The

commissioner, in collaboration with the commissioner of education and

the president of the higher education services corporation, is

authorized and directed to establish a physician loan repayment program

to encourage medical students to enter primary care specialties and to

serve underserved areas and populations.

2. The commissioner is authorized, within amounts available pursuant

to subdivision nineteen-a of section twenty-eight hundred seven-c and

section twenty-eight hundred seven-l of this chapter, to make loan

repayment awards as follows:

(a) beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-four, to any

resident who first entered a primary care medical training program on or

after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-four in the second or third

year of such program; provided such resident agrees to practice primary

care in an underserved area in New York state for one year for each such

annual award received, with such practice beginning immediately after

completion of such residency training. Such resident shall be eligible

for an award of up to ten thousand dollars per year and beginning

January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to fifteen thousand

dollars per year; and

(b) beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-five, to a

primary care physician, emergency medicine physician or other physician

specialty determined by the commissioner to be in short supply, licensed

to practice medicine in New York state, who agrees to practice for at

least two years in an underserved area. Such physician shall be eligible

for a loan repayment award of up to ten thousand dollars per year and

beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to fifteen

thousand dollars per year for each of the first two years of practice in

such area; provided, however, if such physician agrees to practice for

an additional two years in such area, then such physician shall be

eligible for an award of up to fifteen thousand dollars per year and

beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to twenty

thousand dollars per year for each of the second two years of such

practice.

3. Loan repayment awards made to a physician pursuant to subdivision

two of this section shall not exceed the total qualifying outstanding

debt of the physician from student loans to cover tuition and other

related educational expenses, made by or guaranteed by the federal or

state government, or made by a lending or educational institution

approved under title IV of the federal higher education act. Loan

repayment awards shall be used solely to repay such outstanding debt.

4. Within such time as the commissioner shall by regulation provide, a

recipient of an award shall have practiced as a primary care physician

in an underserved area in the state of New York or, in the case of a

recipient of an award after completion of residency training, the

recipient shall have practiced in an underserved area for that number of

months calculated by multiplying by twelve the number of annual awards

received by the recipient. If a recipient fails to comply fully with

such conditions, the president shall be entitled to receive from such

recipient an amount to be determined by the formula:

A = 2B(t-s)

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t

In which "A" is the amount the president is entitled to recover, "B" is

the sum of all payments made to the recipient and the interest on such

amount which would be payable if at the times such awards were paid they

were loans bearing interest at the maximum prevailing rate; "t" is the

total number of months in the recipient's period of obligated services;

and "s" is the number of months of services actually rendered by the

recipient. Any amount which the president is entitled to recover under

this subdivision shall be paid within the five-year period beginning on

the date that the recipient failed to comply with this condition. Any

obligation to comply with such provisions shall be canceled upon the

death of the recipient. The commissioner of health shall promulgate

regulations to provide for the waiver or suspension of any financial

obligation when compliance would involve extreme hardship.

5. The commissioner is authorized to apply any funds available for

purposes of subdivision two of this section for use as matching funds

for federal grants for the purpose of assisting states in operating loan

repayment programs pursuant to section three hundred thirty-eight I of

the public health service act.

6. The commissioner, in consultation with the council, shall

promulgate regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions and

purposes of this section.