Assistance program
National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment
$1.5 Billion committed in FY2021–FY2026
- Agency
- Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 93.162
- What it does
- The purpose of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program (LRP) is to recruit and retain medical, nursing, dental, and behavioral/mental health clinicians in eligible communities of need designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). The purpose of the NHSC Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Workforce LRP is to recruit and retain medical, nursing, and behavioral/mental health clinicians with specific training and credentials to provide evidence-based SUD treatment and counselling in eligible communities of need designated as HPSAs. The purpose of the NHSC Rural Community LRP is to recruit and retain medical, nursing, and behavioral/mental health clinicians with specific training and credentials to provide evidence-based SUD treatment in rural communities designated as HPSAs. The purpose of the NHSC Students to Service (S2S) LRP is to enter into contracts with students who are in their last year of medical, dental, or nursing school to provide loan repayment assistance in return for a commitment to provide primary health services in eligible communities of need designated as HPSAs. The purpose of the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery (STAR) LRP is to recruit and retain medical, nursing, behavioral/mental health clinicians and paraprofessionals who provide full-time employment that involves direct treatment or recovery support of patients with or in recovery from a substance use disorder at a STAR LRP-approved facility located in either a county (or a municipality, if not contained within any county) where the mean drug overdose death rate per 100,000 people over the past three years for which official data is available from the State, is higher than the most recent available national average overdose death rate per 100,000 people, as reported by the CDC, or in a designated HPSA. The purpose of the Pediatric Specialty LRP is to recruit and retain pediatric medical specialists, pediatric surgical specialists and child and adolescent mental and behavioral health providers who provide full-time employment in or for an approved facility serving, a health professional shortage area or medically underserved area, or to serve a medically underserved population.