HB186 By Representatives Lee, Chesteen and Clouse RFD Ways and Means Education Rd 1 11-FEB-16

SYNOPSIS: This bill would create the Alabama Physician's Assistants Service Program, to be administered by the Board of Medical Scholarship Awards, and would provide for the funding of the Program by the Education Trust Fund. This bill would also provide a state income tax credit for participants in the Program.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

To create the Alabama Physician’s Assistants Service Program; to establish and describe the program, to be administered by the Board of Medical Scholarship Awards; to provide that the program will be funded by direct appropriation from the Education Trust Fund; to provide definitions; to outline the procedure for the Board to award loans and require loan repayment through work in medically underserved areas, called areas of critical need; to define areas of critical need; to establish provisions for default or other failure to honor loan-repayment contracts between participants and the Board; to provide a state income-tax credit for participants; and to further provide requirements and powers of the Board for operating the program.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:

Section 1. For the purposes of this act, the following words shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) AREA OF CRITICAL NEED. An area with a critical need for more physician’s assistants, as determined by the Board, where participants may work to repay loans received under the Program.

(2) BOARD. The Alabama Board of Medical Scholarship Awards created in Section 16-47-121, Code of Alabama 1975.

(3) PARTICIPANT. Any person awarded a loan under the Program.

(4) PROGRAM. The Alabama Physician’s Assistants Service Program.

Section 2. There is hereby created and established the Alabama Physician’s Assistant Service Program. The program shall be administered by the Board of Medical Scholarship Awards created in Section 16-47-121, Code of Alabama 1975. The Program shall be funded by direct appropriation from the Education Trust Fund.

Section 3. (a) The Board shall establish and award, according to the judgment of the Board, loans to provide for the training of qualified applicants for admission or students in any accredited master’s degree program for physician assistant studies at a medical school or college. The Board may permit eligible people to apply for a loan under the Alabama Physician’s Assistants Service Program in any scholastic year and for any previously completed scholastic year. The Board’s awarding of loans shall be done after consultation with the physician’s assistant advisory committee of the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.

(b) The Board may award to an eligible person a loan or loans totaling in value as much as the average in-state tuition and required fees charged at public institutions in Alabama for completing on time a master’s degree program for physician assistant studies. But a loan or loans may be awarded only to people who have signed contracts with the Board to work following graduation in full-time clinical practice for three years as licensed physician’s assistants in areas of critical need.

(c) Each participant’s loan or loans shall be repaid by the participant fulfilling the terms of the contract he or she signed with the Board for work in an area of critical need for three years.

(d) The Board shall make a careful and thorough investigation of the ability, character and qualifications of each applicant, and award a loan or loans according to the judgment of the board and the requirements of this act.

(e) A participant, subject to approval by the Board, may change the area of critical need where he or she will work to repay loans under this Program, but in no case shall the participant work in full-time practice for less than three years in a new area of critical need.

Section 4. An area of critical need shall be in Alabama and shall be a medically underserved area as defined by the Board. The Board shall give preference in awarding loans to applicants who agree to repay their loans by working in an area of critical need that is within a primary-care health professional shortage area (HPSA) for a geographic area, recognized by the Health Resources and Services Administration, or its successor organization, and by the Alabama Office of Primary Care and Rural Health, or its successor organization.

Section 5. (a) If a participant defaults on or otherwise fails to honor a loan-repayment contract with the Board, the individual shall be liable for immediate repayment of the total principal loan amount plus interest at the rate of 8 percent, or the prime lending rate, whichever is greater, accruing from the date of default or other failure to honor the contract. In addition, the participant shall pay an additional penalty as specified:

(1) For default or other failure to honor a contract before graduation with a master’s degree in physician assistant studies, a penalty equal to 30 percent of the total principal amount of the loan or loans received by the participant.

(2) For default or other failure to honor a contract after graduation with a master’s degree in physician assistant studies but prior to completion of the repayment obligation set forth in Section 3, a penalty equal to 100 percent of the total principal amount of all loans received by the participant from the Program.

(b) The failure of a participant to honor his or her contract with the Board or to pay the amount he or she is liable for under this section shall constitute a ground for the revocation of his or her license to work as a physician’s assistant in Alabama.

(c) The Board may excuse repayment of a loan, in whole or in part, upon the death of a participant, or upon the participant becoming disabled to the extent that he or she is no longer able to work as a physician’s assistant, or upon some other extreme hardship not the fault of the participant.

Section 6. (a) The Board annually shall report on the condition and accomplishments of the Program to the Governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, president pro-tem of the Senate and the chairs of the House and Senate health committees. The report shall include for the reporting year the locations where participants agreed to serve or where they were serving to repay loans. The report also shall outline the finances of the program.

(b) The Board shall make reasonable rules and regulations to implement and administer the Program.

(c) The Board shall use any monies it receives from or for the operation of the Program, including repayments, interest and penalties paid because of default or other failure to honor a contract, to fund loans.

Section 7. A participant working in full-time clinical practice in an area of critical need to repay a loan or loans from the Program shall be allowed a credit against the tax imposed by Section 40-18-2 in the sum of $5,000 per tax year. After a participant has repaid his or her loan through work in an area of critical need, he or she may continue to claim the tax credit as long as he or she continues to work in full-time clinical practice in the same area of critical need, except that the tax credit may not be used in more than 10 total tax years. The Department of Revenue shall promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to implement and administer the provisions of this section.