Code of Maine Rules › 94 - INDEPENDENT AGENCIES › 457 - FINANCE AUTHORITY OF MAINE (FAME) › Chapter 607 - ACCESS TO MEDICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH PROFESSIONS LOAN PROGRAMS › Section 457-607-I - DEFINITIONS

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
A. Certain terms used in this rule, which are
				defined in the
Finance Authority of Maine Act
,
				10 M.R.S.A.
				§961 and following and in 20-A M.R.S.A.
				Chapter 424 shall have the meanings set forth therein, unless clearly specified
				otherwise or unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
B.
Defined Terms
1. "Annual report" means a report provided
				annually by the Authority to the loan recipient, requiring the loan recipient
				to provide a current address and status of the loan recipient's professional
				education, training or practice and such other information the Authority deems
				useful or necessary for the efficient administration of the Program.
2. "Chief executive officer" means the chief
				executive officer of the Authority or a person acting under the supervisory
				control of the chief executive officer.
3. "Clinical education" means any on-location
				teaching environment ranging from a one-to-one training between a physician, or
				as to students of veterinary medicine a veterinarian, and a medical student to
				a training in a health clinic or hospital with or without a residency
				program.
4. "Contract student"
				means a person who obtained a position in an institution pursuant to an
				agreement between the Authority and the institution.
5. "Completion of professional education"
				means completion of medical school, post-graduate medical training and
				obligated public health service, and/or obligated national service.
6. "Entire family practice residency program
				in the State" means any family practice residency in the State approved by the
				Liaison Committee on Medical Education, American Medical Association -
				Association of American Medical Colleges or any general practice residency
				approved by the Bureau of Professional Education of the American Osteopathic
				Association and also includes:
(a) a
				residency composed of a combination of those; or
(b) an approved family practice or general
				practice residency in the State which accepts a one year internship as meeting
				part of the requirement of the residency.
7. "Family contribution" means the aggregate
				of the student and family contribution. In the event an institution uses any
				methodology other than federal methodology to determine family contribution,
				the institution shall provide the Authority an explanation of how it calculates
				family contribution.
7A. "Federal
				methodology" means the process used by the United States Department of
				Education to determine a student's financial need.
8. "Forgiveness" means the satisfaction of
				all or a portion of the loan obligation by the loan recipient through an
				eligible practice as set forth in section
				III. E.3, section
				IV. D. or section
				V. C.
9. "Health professional shortage area" means
				an area in the State lacking in medical professionals as designated by the
				Commissioner of Health and Human Services.
10. "Indebtedness" shall be equal to (1) the
				tuition differential, plus any interest accrued thereon and (2) any amount
				borrowed as a direct loan for medical education, plus any interest accrued
				thereon.
11. "Institution" means an
				institution of allopathic or osteopathic medical education. For students
				commencing medical education prior to January 1, 1993, institution includes any
				institution of medical education that has had a contract to provide access to
				medical education for Maine students with the Authority or any agency which
				administrated the Post Graduate Health Professions Program prior to the
				Authority.
12. "Insufficient
				veterinary services" means an insufficient number of practitioners of
				veterinary medicine in either a veterinary specialty or a geographic area, as
				determined by the Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and
				Forestry.
12A. "Large animal(s)",
				as that term is used in Section
				II(A)(2), Section
				II(B) (2), Section
				II(C) (1), and
				Section
				III(B), means
				cattle, oxen, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, bison raised for
				food, and/or domesticated deer and/or elk, and may also include other animals,
				upon request, in the Authority's sole discretion.
13. "Loan recipient" means any student who
				incurs indebtedness evidenced by a Note and Loan Agreement requiring the amount
				of money borrowed to be repaid either through cash installment payments or
				through forgiveness.
14. "Maine
				resident" means a person who has been a resident of the State for a minimum of
				one year at the time of matriculation at medical school for other than
				educational purposes. In determining whether an applicant is a Maine resident
				the Authority may consider (1) the secondary school the applicant attended; (2)
				the legal residence of the applicant's parents, if the applicant is dependent;
				(3) the location where the applicant is registered to vote, if any; (4) the
				jurisdiction(s) in which the applicant files income tax forms; (5) the
				jurisdiction where the applicant is licensed to drive, if any; (6) such other
				relevant documents and information as determined necessary or convenient in the
				opinion of the chief executive officer.
15. "Nonresident tuition" means tuition
				charged to persons who do not reside in the state where the institution is
				located. If no distinction is made between the tuition charged residents and
				nonresident students at the institution, then nonresident tuition means the
				tuition charged all students.
16.
				"Obligated national service" means an obligation incurred for financial
				assistance during undergraduate or graduate education, for internship or
				residency training provided by the Armed Forces Services of the United States,
				or for compulsory national service required by an Act of Congress.
17. "Postgraduate medical training" includes
				internships, residencies, and fellowships that fulfill the requirements for
				certifications/licensure by the corresponding Council/Board on Graduate
				Education of Allopathic Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine or Dentistry in the
				specialty. Postgraduate medical training for Optometric students includes
				postdoctoral residencies and fellowships affiliated with and administered by a
				professional Optometry school. Postgraduate medical training for veterinary
				graduates includes one-year internships with a practicing veterinarian and/or
				internships, residencies, and fellowships that prepare the practitioners for
				certification(s) by the corresponding Council Board of veterinary medicine in
				the specialty.
18. "Primary health
				care" means general or family practice of medicine, general internal medicine,
				general pediatrics, general dentistry and obstetrics and gynecology.
19. "Repayment period" means the period of
				time following completion of professional education or upon withdrawal from
				school, post-graduate training, and obligated national service required by an
				Act of Congress, commencing six (6) months after completion of professional
				education and continuing ten (10) years.
20. "Return service" means employment in a
				practice that qualifies the loan recipient for forgiveness of any portion of
				the indebtedness.
21. "Tuition
				differential" means the difference between the nonresident tuition at the
				institution being attended by the contract student and the tuition charged the
				contract student for each year of attendance as a contract student.
22. "Underserved group" means an underserved
				population group in the State receiving insufficient primary health care or
				dental services as determined by the Commissioner of Health and Human Services.
				Such a designation may be limited to a geographic area of the State or to a
				specific practice location in the discretion of the Commissioner of Health and
				Human Services.
23. "Underserved
				specialty" means a medical specialty in which there are insufficient
				practitioners either throughout the State or within a designated geographic
				area of the State, which may be a specific practice location, as determined by
				the Commissioner of Health and Human Services.