[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 5, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41478-41480]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-16875]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Indian Health Service


Availability of Funds for Loan Repayment Program for Repayment of 
Health Professions Educational Loans

AGENCY: Indian Health Service, HHS.

ACTION:  Revised notice of availability of funds for loan repayment 
program for repayment of health professions educational loans for 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2000.

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SUMMARY: The announcement for FY 2000 Availability of Funds for Loan 
Repayment Program for Repayment of Health Professions Educational Loans 
was announced in 64 FR 53681 on October 4, 1999. The Indian Health 
Service (IHS) is republishing the full notice, for the convenience of 
the public, and in order to add that the IHS Area Offices and Service 
Units may provide additional funding to make awards to participants in 
the Loan Repayment Program (LRP), and to describe the policy for 
administering these funds.
    The Administration's budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2000 
includes $11,000,000 for the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment 
Program for health professionals educational loans (undergraduate and 
graduate) in return for full-time clinical service in Indian health 
programs. It is anticipated that $11,000,000 will be available to 
support approximately 275 competing awards averaging $40,000 per award.
    This program announcement is subject to the appropriation of funds. 
This notice is being published early to coincide with the recruitment 
activity of the IHS, which competes with other Government and private 
health management organizations to employ qualified health 
professionals. Funds must be expended by September 30 of the fiscal 
year. This program is authorized by Section 108 of the Indian Health 
Care Improvement Act (IHCIA) as amended, 25 U.S.C. 1601 et seq. The IHS 
invites potential applications to request an application for 
participation in the Loan Repayment Program.

DATES: Applications for the FY 2000 Loan Repayment Program will be 
accepted and evaluated monthly beginning January 14, 2000, and will 
continue to be accepted each month thereafter until all funds are 
exhausted. Subsequent monthly deadline dates are scheduled for Friday 
of the second full week of each month. Notice of awards will be mailed 
on the last working day of each month.
    Applicants selected for participation in the FY 2000 program cycle 
will be expected to begin their service period no later than September 
30, 2000.
    Applications shall be considered as meeting the deadline if they 
are either:
    1. Received on or before the deadline date; or
    2. Sent on or before the deadline date. (Applicants should request 
a legibly dated U.S. Postal Service post mark or obtain a legibly dated 
receipt from a commercial carrier or U.S. Postal Service. Private 
metered postmarks are not acceptable as proof of timely mailing.)
    Applications received after the monthly closing date will be held 
for

[[Page 41479]]

consideration in the next monthly funding cycle. Applicants who do not 
receive funding by September 30, 2000, will be notified in writing.
    Form to be Used for Application: Applications will be accepted only 
if they are submitted on the form entitled ``Application for the Indian 
Health Service Loan Repayment Program,'' identified with the Office of 
Management and Budget approval number of OMB #0917-0014 (expires 11/30/
99).

ADDRESSES: Application materials may be obtained by calling or writing 
to the address below. In addition, completed applications should be 
returned to: IHS Loan Repayment Program, 12300 Twinbrook Parkway--Suite 
100, Rockville, Maryland 20852, PH: 301/443-3396 (between 8 a.m. and 5 
p.m. (EST) Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please address inquiries to Mr. Paul 
A. Lofgren, Acting Chief, IHS Loan Repayment Program, Twinbrook Metro 
Plaza--Suite 100, 12300 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Maryland 20852, 
PH: 301/443-3396 (between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (EST) Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 108 of the IHCIA, as amended by 
Public Laws 100-713 and 102-573, authorizes the IHS Loan Repayment 
Program and provides in pertinent part as follows:

    The Secretary, acting through the Service, shall establish a 
program to be known as the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment 
Program (hereinafter referred to a the ``Loan Repayment Program'') 
in order to assure an adequate supply of trained health professions 
necessary to maintain accreditation of, and provide health care 
services to Indians through, Indian health programs.

    Section 4(n) of the IHCIA, as amended by the Indian Health Care 
Improvement Technical Corrections Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-313, 
provides that:

    ``Health Profession'' means allopathic medicine, family 
medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatric medicine, 
obstetrics and gynecology, podiatric medicine, nursing, public 
health nursing, dentistry, psychiatry, osteopathy, optometry, 
pharmacy, psychology, public health, social work, marriage and 
family therapy, chiropractic medicine, environmental health and 
engineering, an allied health profession, or any other health 
profession.

    For the purposes of this program, the term ``Indian health 
program'' is defined in Section 108(a)(2)(A), as follows:

* * * any health program or facility funded, in whole or in part, by 
the IHS for the benefit of American Indians and Alaska Natives and 
administered:
    a. Directly by the service; or
    b. By any Indian tribe or tribal or Indian organization pursuant 
to a contract under:
    (1) The Indian Self-Determination Act; or
    (2) Section 23 of the Act of April 30, 1908, (25 U.S.C. 47), 
popularly known as the Buy Indian Act; or
    (3) By an urban Indian organization pursuant to Title V of this 
act.

    Applicants may sign contractual agreements with the Secretary for 2 
years. The IHS will repay all, or a portion of the applicant's health 
profession educational loans (undergraduate and graduate) for tuition 
expenses and reasonable educational, and living expenses in amounts up 
to $20,000 per year for each year of contracted service. Payments will 
be made annually to the participant for the purpose of repaying his/her 
outstanding health profession educational loans. Repayment of health 
profession education loans will be made to the participant within 120 
days after the entry-on-duty of the participant has been confirmed by 
the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.
    The Secretary must approve the contract before the disbursement of 
loan repayments can be made to the participant. Participants will be 
required to fulfill their contract service agreements through full-time 
clinical practice at an Indian health program site determined by the 
Secretary. Loan repayment sites are characterized by physical, 
cultural, and professional isolation, and have histories of frequent 
staff turnover. All Indian health program sites are annually 
prioritized within the Agency by discipline, based on need or vacancy.
    All health professionals will receive up to $20,000 per year 
regardless of their length of contract. Where the amount of the Loan 
Repayment Program award may result in an increase in Federal income tax 
liability, the IHS will pay an additional 20 percent of the 
participant's total loan repayments to the Internal Revenue Service for 
the increased tax liability.
    Pursuant to Section 108(b), to be eligible to participate in the 
Loan Repayment Program, an individual must:
    (1) A. Be enrolled:
    (i) In a course of study or program in an accredited institution, 
as determined by the Secretary, within a State and be scheduled to 
complete such course of study in the same year such individual applies 
to participate in the Loan Repayment Program. (This includes the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Federated States 
of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic 
of Palau); or
    (ii) In an approved graduate training program in a health 
profession; or
    B. Have a degree in a health profession and a license to practice; 
and
    (2) A. Be eligible for, or hold an appointment as a Commissioned 
Officer in the Regular or Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service; 
or
    B. Be eligible for selection for civilian service in the Regular or 
Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service; or
    C. Meet the professional standards for civil service employment in 
the IHS; or
    D. Be employed in an Indian health program without service 
obligation; and
    (3) Submit to the Secretary an application and contract to the Loan 
Repayment Program; and
    (4) Sign and submit to the Secretary, a written contract agreeing 
to accept repayment of educational loans and to serve for the 
applicable period of obligated service in a priority site as determined 
by the Secretary; and
    (5) Sign an affidavit attesting to the fact that they have been 
informed of the relative merits of the U.S. Public Health Service 
Commission Corps and the Civil Service as employment options.
    Once the applicant is approved for participation in the Loan 
Repayment Program, the applicant will receive confirmation of his/her 
loan repayment award and the duty site as which he/she will serve his/
her loan repayment obligation.
    The IHS has identified the positions in each Indian health program 
for which there is a need or vacancy and ranked those positions in 
order of priority by developing discipline-specific prioritized lists 
of sites. Ranking criteria for those sites include the following:
    <bullet> Historically critical shortages caused by frequent staff 
turnover;
    <bullet> Current unmatched vacancies in a Health Profession 
Discipline;
    <bullet> Projected vacancies in a Health Profession Discipline;
    <bullet> Ensuring that the staffing needs of Indian health programs 
administered by an Indian tribe or tribal or health organization 
receive consideration on an equal basis with programs that are 
administered directly by the Service; and
    <bullet> Giving priority to vacancies in Indian health programs 
that have a need for health professionals to provide health care 
services as a result of individuals having breached Loan Repayment 
Program contracts entered into under this section.
    <bullet> Consistent with this priority ranking, in determining 
applications to be approved and contracts to accept, the IHS will give 
priority to applications

[[Page 41480]]

made by American Indians and Alaska Natives and to individuals 
recruited through the efforts of Indian tribes or tribal or Indian 
organizations.
    <bullet> Funds appropriated for the LRP in FY 2000 will be 
distributed among the health professions as follows: Allopathic/
osteopathic practitioners will receive 30 percent, registered nurses 15 
percent, mental health professionals 10 percent, dentists 15 percent, 
pharamacists 12.5 percent, optometrists 7.5 percent, physician 
assistants 5 percent, other professions 5 percent. This requirement 
does not apply if the number of applicants from these groups, 
respectively, is not sufficient to meet the requirement.
    <bullet> The IHS will give priority in funding among health 
professionals to physicians in the following priority specialities: 
anesthesiology, emergency room medicine, general surgery, obstetrics/
gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology/
otorhinolaryngology, psychiatry, radiology and dentistry. Funding for 
these priority specialities is within the 30 percent established for 
allopathic/osteopathic practitioners.
    The following factors are equal in weight when applied, and are 
applied when all other criteria are equal and a selection must be made 
between applicants.
    One or all of the following factors may be applicable to an 
applicant, and the applicant who has the most of these factors, all 
other criteria being equal, would be selected.
    <bullet> An applicant's length of current employment in the IHS, 
tribal, or urban program.
    <bullet> Availability for service earlier than other applicants 
(first come, first served); and
    <bullet> Date the individual's application was received.
    Any individual who enters this program and satisfactorily completes 
his or her obligated period of service may apply to extend his/her 
contract on a year-by-year basis, as determined by the IHS. 
Participants extending their contracts will receive up to the maximum 
amount of $20,000 per year plus an additional 20 percent for Federal 
Withholding. Participants who were awarded loan repayment contracts 
prior to FY 2000 will be awarded extensions up to the amount of $30,000 
a year and 31 percent in tax subsidy if funds are available, and will 
not exceed the total of the individual's outstanding eligible health 
profession educational loans.
    Any individual who owes an obligation for health professional 
service to the Federal Government, a State, or other entity is not 
eligible for the Loan Repayment Program unless the obligation will be 
completely satisfied before they begin service under this program.
    The IHS Area Offices and Service Units are authorized to provide 
additional funding to make awards to applicants in the LRP, but must be 
in compliance with any limits in the appropriation and Section 108 of 
the Indian Health Care Improvement Act not to exceed the amount 
authorized in the IHS appropriation (up to $17,000,000 for FY 2000.) 
Federally recognized tribes are also authorized to provide funding to 
make supplemental awards to participants who are tribal employees. 
Civil Service or Commission Corps employees are ineligible because it 
would violate 18 U.S.C. 209(a). The funding source cannot be from 
appropriated monies pursuant to the Indian Self Determination and 
Education Assistant Act (ISDEA) or other Federal funds. Tribes who 
elect to provide additional monies must provide certification in 
writing that the funds are not from Federal appropriations.
    Should an IHS Area Office contribute to the LRP, those funds will 
be used for only those sites located in that Area. Those sites will 
retain their relative ranking from the national site-ranking list. For 
example, the Albuquerque Area Office identifies supplemental monies for 
dentists. Only the dental positions within the Albuquerque Area will be 
funded with the supplemental monies consistent with the national 
ranking and site index within that Area.
    Should an IHS Service Unit contribute to the LRP, those funds will 
be used for only those sites located in that service unit. These sites 
will retain their relative ranking from the national site-ranking list. 
For example, Chinle Service Unit identifies supplemental monies for 
nurses. The Chinle service units consist of two facilities, namely the 
Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility and the Tsaile PHS Indian 
Health Center. The national ranking will be used for the Chinle 
Comprehensive Health Care Facility (Score = 63) and the Tsaile PHS 
Indian Health Center (Score = 46). With a score of 63, the Chinle 
Comprehensive Health Care Facility would receive priority over the 
Tsaile PHS Indian Health Center.
    The IHS is authorized to accept contributions from tribes to 
supplement the LRP according to the IHS's conditional gift acceptance 
authority.
    The Director of IHS will accept these gifts on a case-by-case basis 
using the following criteria: (1) The contribution is not from 
prohibited 638 funds or federally appropriate funds; (2) the LRP 
applicant selection and placement is consistent with the national 
ranking criteria; (3) the extent to which the gift is related to the 
agency's mission for the loan repayment program; (4) whether the gift 
would benefit the agency, or instead primarily benefit an individual 
employee; and (5) the size and nature of the gift.
    This program is not subject to review under Executive Order 12372.

    The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number if 93.164.
    Dated: June 28, 2000.
Michel E. Lincoln,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 00-16875 Filed 7-4-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-16-M