$293 Million Awarded by HHS to Expand Primary Healthcare Workforce

In response to a growing shortage of primary healthcare physicians, especially in rural underserved areas, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded $293 million in awards to primary healthcare clinicians and students through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and Nurse Corps programs. The awards will go to:

• The NHSC Scholarship Program ($47.1 million) to provide 222 new awards and seven continuation awards to students pursuing primary care training leading to a degree in medicine, dentistry or a degree as a nurse-midwife, physician assistant or nurse practitioner in exchange for providing primary healthcare services in areas of greatest need.
• The NHSC Loan Repayment Program ($142.1 million) to provide 3,262 new awards and 2,384 one-year continuation awards to fully trained, licensed primary care clinicians in exchange for providing primary healthcare services in an area of greatest need.
• The NHSC Students to Service Loan Repayment Program ($19.3 million) to provide 162 new awards that provide loan repayment assistance to medical and dental students in their last year of school in return for choosing primary care as a practice focus and working in rural and urban areas of greatest need.
• The NHSC State Loan Repayment Program ($12.6 million) to provide cost-sharing grants to 37 states and territories that operate their own loan repayment programs, funding 1,350 new and continuation awards.
• The Nurse Corps Scholarship Program ($25.1 million) to provide 215 new awards and four continuation awards to nursing students in exchange for a commitment to work at least two years in a facility with critical shortages.
• The Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program ($44.4 million) to provide 544 new awards and 279 one-year continuation awards to nurses in exchange for a commitment to serve at a healthcare facility with a critical shortage of nurses or serve as nurse faculty at an accredited school of nursing.
• The Faculty Loan Repayment Program ($1.1 million) to provide 23 new awards to health profession educators in exchange for serving as a faculty member in an accredited and eligible health profession school.
• The Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program exit disclaimer icon ($900,000) to provide nine new awards and one continuation award to Native Hawaiian health profession students trained in those disciplines and specialties most needed to deliver quality, culturally competent, primary health services to Native Hawaiians in the state of Hawaii.

Currently, an estimated 13 million patients receive care from more than 12,500 NHSC and Nurse Corps clinicians. Another 1,725 primary care students are either in school or in residency preparing for future service with the Corps program. “These programs connect primary care providers with the rural, urban and tribal communities across the country that need them the most,” said HRSA Administrator George Sigounas, MS, PhD. “In addition to providing essential medical and dental care, these clinicians are on the front lines helping to fight pressing public health issues like the growing opioid epidemic.”