A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize a loan repayment program to encourage specialty medicine physicians to serve in rural communities experiencing a shortage of specialty medicine physicians, and for other purposes.
Specialty Physicians Advancing Rural Care Act or the SPARC Act
This bill establishes student loan repayment programs to support the provision of specialty medical care in rural areas.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) must carry out such a program for certain specialty medicine physicians who provide care in rural communities with shortages of such physicians. Physicians must agree to a period of obligated service and, for each year of such service, HRSA must pay one-sixth of the principal payment and interest on eligible loans up to a maximum cap of $250,000. Additionally, HRSA may carry out a similar loan repayment program for nonphysician specialty health care providers.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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