AB 454

Under current law, the Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB) administers

various student financial aid programs, including programs to assist students

preparing for certain health care professions, such as nursing and dentistry.

This bill establishes, under the administration of HEAB, a primary care and

psychiatry shortage grant program (grant program) to encourage primary care

physicians and psychiatrists to practice primary care medicine or psychiatry in

underserved areas in this state. A physician or psychiatrist is eligible to participate

in the grant program if he or she meets all of the following requirements:

1. He or she practices primary care medicine or psychiatry, including child

psychiatry (psychiatry), in an underserved area in this state. The bill defines

"primary care medicine" as any of the following medical specialities: 1) family

practice; 2) internal medicine; 3) pediatrics; or 4) general surgery. The bill defines

an "underserved area" as a health professional shortage area certified by DHHS, a

health service shortage area designated by the governor and certified by the

secretary of health and human services, or a medically underserved area, as defined

in regulations promulgated by DHHS.

2. He or she graduated from a school of medicine located in this state and from

a graduate medical education training program in this state with an emphasis on

primary care medicine or psychiatry (GME training program).

The bill appropriates $1,500,000 in fiscal year 2014-15 as a continuing

appropriation for the grant program and requires HEAB to allocate not more than

$750,000 of that amount for financial assistance to physicians and not more than

$750,000 of that amount for financial assistance to psychiatrists. The bill permits

HEAB to grant financial assistance under the grant program to no more than 12

physicians and no more than 12 psychiatrists in a fiscal year and provides that, if

more than 12 physicians or more than 12 psychiatrists apply for participation in the

grant program in a fiscal year, HEAB must consider the order in which those

applications are received and the health professional shortage area score, as

determined by the Health Resources and Services Administration of DHHS, of the

underserved area in which the applicant is practicing primary care medicine or

psychiatry in selecting participants in the grant program. In addition, the bill: 1)

provides that an individual physician or psychiatrist may receive financial

assistance under the grant program in no more than three fiscal years; and 2)

prohibits HEAB from requesting continued funding for the grant program in its

2015-17 biennial budget request.

To participate in the grant program, a physician or psychiatrist may apply to

HEAB while he or she is participating in a GME training program, but must apply

to HEAB no later than the date on which he or she accepts employment or any other

affiliation as a primary care physician or psychiatrist in an underserved area in this

state.