care services during normally scheduled office hours. Of the remaining 9.5 hours, no more than 4 hours may be spent on administrative activities. The 20 hours per week may be compressed into no less than 4 days per week with no more than 12 hours of regularly scheduled work to be performed in any 24-hour period. No more than seven weeks (35 work days) per year can be spent away from the practice for vacation, holidays, continuing professional education, illness or any other reason. Absences greater than seven weeks in a service year will extend the service commitment end date. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES Each loan repayment participant must complete and submit to the department a verification form for each quarter of service. The form, which is signed by the participant and by an appropriate official at the practice site, will verify the participant’s compliance/noncompliance with the clinical practice requirement during that quarter. The form will also record the participant’s time spent away from the practice site during that quarter. Continued receipt of loan repayment benefits will be contingent on a participant’s timely submission of the quarter verifications forms. All loan repayments paid to the participant must be used by the participant to repay the approved qualifying educational loans. Documentation of those payments must be sent to the department on an annual basis. HOW WILL PAYMENTS BE MADE? The Department will pay recipients one half of the total amount while the other half comes from the site. Recipients will be responsible for payments to the financial institutions holding their educational loans. WHAT ARE THE REPAYMENT OBLIGATIONS? Program participants who, for any reason, fail to begin or complete the required period of obligated service shall be liable to the Department for an amount equal to the number of months of obligated service not completed multiplied by $7,500 and interest on the above amounts at the maximum legal prevailing rate, as determined by the Treasurer of the United States from the date of breach. Except that the amount the Department is entitled to recover will not be less than $31,000. Any amount the Department is entitled to recover shall be paid within one year of the date the Director determines that the applicant is in breach of the written contract. Failure to pay the Department by the due date has the following consequences: The debt will be reported to credit reporting agencies. Any loan repayment debt more than 60 days past due shall be reported to all appropriate credit reporting agencies.
The debt will be referred to a debt collection agency and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Any loan repayment debt past due for three months shall be referred to a debt agency. If the debt collection agency is unsuccessful in receiving payment in full, the debt will be referred to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office for enforced collection. State payments due to the grantee (e.g. state income tax refund) may be offset by the Illinois Department of Revenue to repay a delinquent loan repayment debt. HOW IS APPLICATION MADE? Applications are available on the IDPH website at . A separate application for the site is also available on the website. Completed applications should be sent to: Center for Rural Health Illinois Department of Public Health 535 W. Jefferson St. Springfield, IL 62761 SITE CERTIFICATION I certify that the applicant(s) will practice full time at public or non-profit private entities providing primary health services in a federally designated health professional shortage area (HPSA). In addition, I certify that the organization shall provide 50 percent of the loan repayments to support the applicant(s) who agreed to practice in the facility for one of the following: TWO-YEAR SERVICE COMMITMENT Yes No Site Contribution: Up to $12,500/ year for two years THREE-YEAR SERVICE COMMITMENT Yes No Site Contribution: Up to $10,000/ year for the third year FOUR-YEAR SERVICE COMMITMENT Yes No