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• Primary care medical providers assigned to a primary care Health Professional Shortage
Area and maternity care health professionals assigned to a Maternity Care Target Area
can choose to serve in either full-time clinical practice or half-time clinical practice. An
award for full-time service is up to $75,000 in loan repayment or up to $80,000 with the
one-time Spanish language award enhancement; an award for half-time service is up to
$37,500 in loan repayment or up to $42,500 with the one-time Spanish language award
enhancement. Both award types require a two-year service obligation. Read more in the
Practice Agreement Types and Eligible Primary Care Providers and Clinical Practice
Requirements sections of this Guidance.
• Mental or Oral health care providers assigned to a mental or dental Health Professional
Shortage Area, respectively, can choose to serve in either full-time clinical practice or
half-time clinical practice. An award for full-time service is up to $50,000 in loan
repayment or up to $55,000 with the one-time Spanish language award enhancement;
an award for half-time service is up to $25,000 in loan repayment or up to $30,000 with
the one-time Spanish language award enhancement. Both award types require a two-
year service obligation. Read more in the Practice Agreement Types and Eligible Primary
Care Providers and Clinical Practice Requirements sections of this Guidance.
• Award amounts are based on the outstanding balance of an applicant’s qualifying
educational loans. Participants must complete the two-year service obligation
regardless of the amount of their award.
• Participants must apply all loan repayments received through the National Health
Service Corps Loan Repayment Program to their qualifying graduate and/or
undergraduate educational loans.
• By statute, National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program funds are exempt
from federal income and employment taxes. These funds are not included as wages
when determining Social Security benefits.
WHAT LOANS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR REPAYMENT?
National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program awards are based on the participant’s
outstanding eligible educational loans. This includes the principal, interest, and related
expenses of outstanding government (federal, state, or local) and commercial (i.e., private)
student loans for undergraduate or graduate education obtained by the participant for school
tuition, other reasonable educational expenses, and reasonable living expenses. The
educational loans must be obtained prior to the date the participant applies.
If a current National Health Service Corps participant obtains additional educational loans
toward another health professions degree that will result in a change in discipline (for example,
a Licensed Professional Counselor obtains a doctorate in clinical psychology), they will need to
apply to the National Health Service Corps as a new participant in a subsequent application
cycle and will be reviewed competitively against other applicants. If a prior National Health
Service Corps participant obtains additional educational loans within the same discipline in
which they performed their service obligation, those loans are not eligible for repayment.