Health Professions Educational Assistance Act

(Measure indefinitely postponed in Senate, H.R. 5546 passed in lieu)

Health Professions Educational Assistance Act - =Title I: Extension of Current Authorities Through Fiscal Year 1977= - Amends the Public Health Service Act to extend appropriation authorizations for specified medical training and education programs through fiscal year 1977.

Permits a component school or entity to apply directly for a construction grant, if it has the approval of an affiliated, accredited school also participating in the program.

Defines the term regional health profession schools as interstate cooperative programs which may involve several schools sharing a curriculum.

=Title II: General Provisions= - Requires any entity providing health services to an area where large segments of the population are of limited English-speaking ability to emphasize the recruitment of health personnel speaking the language predominantly spoken by such segments of the population as a prerequisite to receiving assistance under such Act.

Directs the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to encourage the development of cooperative interdisciplinary training among health professions schools, emphasizing the use of the team approach to the delivery of health services and the training and utilization of auxiliary health personnel.

Directs the Secretary to establish a program to collect and analyze health professions data. Directs the Secretary to conduct or enter into contracts for the evaluation and projection of the supply and requirements for the health professions by specialty and geographic location.

Directs the Secretary to establish by regulation criteria for determining allowable increases in tuition and other educational costs for which he shall be responsible for payment under this Act.

Requires the Secretary to conduct a study to determine the national average per student educational cost of providing education programs leading to a degree of doctor of chiropractics.

=Title III: Student Assistance= - Limits student medical education loans, in each academic year, to the cost of tuition for that year and $2,500. Directs the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to establish a program of student loan insurance for students in eligible health professions schools. Establishes ceilings on the total principal amount of new loans made and installments paid pursuant to lines of credit to students covered by Federal loan insurance in fiscal years 1978 through 1980. Sets forth annual insurable limits per student based on the kind of medical school attended.

Stipulates conditions student borrowers must meet to be eligible for federally insured student loans and sets forth the terms of such loans. Allows eligible lenders to apply to the Secretary for a certificate of insurance covering a medical education loan made by such lender to an eligible student and setting forth the amount and terms of the insurance.

Directs an insurance beneficiary to notify the Secretary promptly of any default by a student borrower. Authorizes the Secretary, upon request or the Secretary's own motion, to pay to the beneficiary the amount of the loss sustained by the insured upon the student loan. Authorizes the Secretary to reduce payments for health services to borrowers who are practicing their professions but have defaulted on their loans in amounts up to the remaining balance of such loans.

Establishes a student loan insurance fund to be available to the Secretary for the purpose of making payments in connection with the default of student loans. Stipulates that the Secretary may sue and be sued in any appropriate Federal or State court in any civil action arising in connection with student medical education loans without regard to the amount in controversy. Grants Federal credit unions the power to make insured medical education loans to student members in accordance with these provisions.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to public or nonprofit private health professions schools for scholarships to be awarded by such schools to students who are of exceptional financial need and who are in their first year of postbaccalaureate study.

Establishes the Lister Hill Scholarship program and makes grants annually to at least ten individuals for medical school scholarships.

=Title IV: National Health Service Corps= - Directs the Secretary to designate annually areas, population groups, and medical or public facilities, as health manpower shortage areas. Authorizes the Secretary to assign members of the National Health Service Corps to provide health services to such areas upon approval of an application by an appropriate entity for such assignment. Requires as a condition to approval that the entity enter into a cost sharing agreement for a specific assignment period.

Requires the Secretary to submit to Congress an annual report on specified aspects of the Corp's activities and the cost sharing and health services operations.

Directs the Secretary to establish the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program to assure an adequate supply of health professionals for the National Health Service Corps. Lists conditions of eligibility for such Program.

Requires each participant to serve in the Corps for a period of one year for each year a scholarship is received under such Program. Allows the Secretary to release an individual from such obligation if such individual applies for release and enters into a written agreement with the Secretary to engage in a full-time private clinical practice in an area which has been designated as a health manpower shortage area for a period of one year for each year a scholarship was received under the Program.

Requires participants in such Program to enter into a written contract with the Secretary. Entitles the United States to recover damages in the event of a breach of the participant's contractual obligations, such damages to be computed according to the formula specified.

=Title V: Postgraduate Physician Training= - Establishes in the Public Health Service the National Council on Postgraduate Physician Training to conduct studies and other activities relevant to postgraduate training of physicians, including assessment of: (1) physician specialty distribution in the United States; (2) the need for financial support for postgraduate physician training; (3) the service needs of hospitals and other health institutions; (4) the educational component of postgraduate physician training programs; and (5) the impact of practice in the United States by graduates of foreign medical schools.

Directs the National Council to advise and assist institutions in implementing the goals developed by the studies on postgraduate physician training.

Requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the status of specialty and geographic distribution of postgraduate physician training positions.

=Title VI: Foreign Medical Graduates= - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make specified preference immigrant aliens who are graduates of a medical school and are coming to the United States principally to perform services as members of the medical profession ineligible to receive visas or to be admitted to the United States. Increases restrictions on granting immigrant visas to foreign medical professionals who were previously granted educational visitor status while attending a health professions school in the United States.

=Title VII: Standards for State Licensure of Physicians and Dentists= - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary to: (1) develop and establish model standards for State licensure of physicians and dentists; (2) prepare examinations for licensing and procedures for relicensing of physicians and dentists; and (3) develop appropriate standards for continuing education programs for physicians and dentists.

Requires the Secretary to submit a report no later than October 1, 1978, jointly to the Committee of Labor and Public Welfare of the Senate and to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House of Representatives on minimum standards for State licensure of physicians and dentists. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State agencies to assist in the establishment of State systems for the initial licensure and subsequent renewal of licensure for physicians and dentists.

=Title VIII: Grants for Schools of Medicine, Osteopathy, and Dentistry= - Revises the method of calculating the amount of annual capitation grants to schools of medicine, osteopathy, and dentistry to support their educational programs. Prohibits such grants unless the applicant for aid gives assurances that student enrollment and the level of non-Federal aid will not be less than in the previous year. Requires medical schools receiving grants to reserve a specified percentage of places for full-time students who have applied for scholarships under such Act. Requires such schools to reserve a specified percentage of their filled residencies in family practice, primary internal medicine, primary pediatrics, primary obstetrics, and gynecology.

Requires dental schools receiving grants to develop, establish, and operate a program to train dental students in the organization and management of multiple auxiliary dental-team practice, or to maintain specified enrollments in general dentistry or pedodontics.

=Title IX: Grants for Schools of Veterinary Medicine, Optometry, Pharmacy, and Podiatry= - Directs the Secretary to make annual grants to schools of veterinary medicine, optometry, pharmacy, and podiatry to support their educational programs. Sets forth the method of calculating the amount of such annual grants. Requires schools of pharmacy to include in their applications the assurance that they will provide each student with a training program in clinical pharmacy. Requires schools of veterinary medicine to include in their applications the assurance that their clinical training will emphasize predominantly care to food and fibre producing animals.

=Title X: Public Health and Health Administration= - Directs the Secretary to make annual capitation grants to schools of public health for the support of their educational programs. Directs the Secretary to make annual grants to public or nonprofit private educational entities (except schools of public health) to support their graduate educational programs in health administration, hospital administration, and health planning (including schools of social work).

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to assist schools of public health and specified other public or nonprofit educational entities in meeting the costs of special projects in: (1) biostatistics or epidemiology; (2) health administration, health planning, or health policy analysis and planning; (3) environmental or occupational health; or (4) dietetics and nutrition. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to such schools and entities for traineeships.

Requires the Secretary to make grants to, or enter into contracts with, any public or nonprofit institution or organization to carry out a program to enhance and improve the performance of Professional Standards Review Organizations. Requires that priority be given to the selection and training of top-level executive staff.

=Title XI: Allied Health Personnel= - Directs the Secretary to make grants and enter into contracts to assist eligible entities in meeting the costs of activities undertaken with respect to: (1) methods of regional coordination and management of education and training for allied health personnel within and among educational institutions and their clinical affiliates; (2) methods for retraining allied health personnel; (3) meaningful career ladders for practicing allied health personnel; and (4) new or improved methods of credentialing allied health personnel. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to public and nonprofit private entities for traineeships provided by such entities for the advanced training of allied health personnel to teach in training programs for such personnel or to serve in administrative or supervisory positions.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to and enter into contracts with schools of allied health and specified other entities to assist in meeting the costs of aiding students or potential students who are financially or otherwise disadvantaged.

=Title XII: Special Project Grants and Contracts= - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants and enter into contracts with any public or nonprofit entity to carry out special projects related to: (1) programs for physician assistants and expanded dental auxiliaries; (2) educational assistance to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds; (3) start up grants; (4) area health education center programs; (5) financial distress assistance to medical schools; (6) grants for training, traineeships, and fellowships in primary internal medicine and primary pediatrics; (7) human behavior and psychiatry in medical and dental practice; (8) speech pathology and audiology; (9) humanism in health care; (10) biomedical educational programs; (11) education of U.S. citizens returning from foreign medical schools; (12) grants for bilingual health clinical training centers; (13) projects grants and contracts for schools of optometry, pharmacy, and podiatry; (14) grants to schools of social work in health care; (15) health manpower development grants and contracts; (16) health professions data; (17) environmental health education grants; (18) health problems relating to women; (19) regional health professions schools; (20) primary dental care development; (21) U.S. citizens who have completed medical training abroad; (22) psychology training programs; (23) implications of advances in biomedical research; (24) dietetic residencies; and (25) regional systems of continuing education.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to and enter into contracts with health profession institutions to meet the costs of recruiting and educating individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

=Title XIII: Occupational Health Training and Education Centers= - Directs the Secretary to make grants to assist public or private nonprofit colleges or universities to establish and operate occupational health training and education centers through cooperative arrangements between schools of medicine and schools of public health.

=Title XIV: Assistance for Construction of Primary Health Care Teaching Facilities= - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to a public or nonprofit private entity to assist in the construction of ambulatory, primary care teaching facilities for the training of physicians and dentists.

=Title XV: Miscellaneous= - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to public and nonprofit private schools of nursing and other public and private entities to establish and operate traineeship programs to train and educate nurse practitioners, pediatric nurses, and physician assistants who are residents of urban or rural manpower shortage areas.

=Title XVI: Radiation Health Safety= - Radiation Health and Safety Act - Directs the Secretary, under the Public Health Service Act, to develop and issue to the States criteria and minimum standards for the accreditation of educational institutions conducting programs for the training of radiologic technologists and minimum criteria for educational institutions conducting programs for the training of medical and dental practitioners. Directs the Secretary to develop and issue to the States criteria and minimum standards for licensure of radiologic technologists.

Directs that State and local governments be encouraged to minimize exposure of the public to ionizing from all sources, and establishes procedures for the adoption of appropriate standards.

Allows the Secretary to make grants to States in an amount up to two-thirds of the first year and one-third of the second year costs of planning, developing, or establishing programs to carry out the provisions of this Act.

Prohibits conducting activities contrary to this Act and subjects violators to a civil penalty of not more than $1,000.