rural health providers; tax
credit
SB 1040 establishes a rural health care providers grant program within DHS.
In 1993, a House Interim Rural Health Care Task Force visited various communities around the state, including Ajo, Bisbee, Flagstaff, Holbrook, Kearny, Kingman, Nogales, Parker and Yuma to develop health policy recommendations. The Task Force identified four general insufficiencies in these geographic areas: (1) a shortage of primary care health professionals; (2) a shortage of health care facilities; (3) a lack of transportation method; and (4) a lack of educational programs for rural communities to assist health care professionals.
Currently, the following programs are aimed at reducing barriers to receiving health care services in rural areas of Arizona:
primary care services: allocates tobacco tax revenue from the medically needy account for grants for equipment and salaries or to expand a nonprofit community based primary care clinic and expand primary care services in medically underserved areas.
qualifying community health center program: allocates tobacco tax revenue from the medically needy account for grants for qualifying community health centers to provide sliding fee scale primary care services to uninsured Arizona residents under 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
clinic construction program: allocates tobacco tax monies from the medically needy account for matching grants to construct, expand or renovate primary care clinics. (However, this program was not continued in legislation during the 2000 legislative session.)
primary care provider loan repayment program: uses state general fund monies for loan repayment of educational-related expenses to qualifying health care professionals who contract with the state to provide primary care services in medically underserved areas for a minimum of two years.
rural private primary care provider loan repayment program: uses tobacco tax monies from the medically needy account for loan repayment of educational-related expenses to certain health care professionals who contract with the state to provide sliding fee scale primary care services for medically uninsured individuals.
J-1 visa waiver program: allows foreign trained physicians to practice in the U.S. in exchange for working three years in an underserved area.
national health service corps: provides for assignment of scholarship recipients to work in federally designated underserved areas and provides for loan repayment to qualifying health care professionals to work in a federally designated underserved area. Each of these programs requires recipients to a commitment of at least two years.
Arizona medical student loan program: provides education-related loans to qualifying
University of Arizona medical students who in turn agree to provide health services in an
underserved area upon graduation from medical school.
|
Profession |
Grant for a minimum of 20-32 hours per
week* |
Grant for a minimum of 32 hours per week* |
|
Primary Care Physicians |
$1000 |
$2000 |
|
Dentists |
$1000 |
$2000 |
|
Optometrists |
$1000 |
$2000 |
|
Mid-Level Providers |
$500 |
$1000 |
*Grant contingent upon a minimum of 48 working weeks per calendar year.