$294 Million in Primary Care Workforce Awards Help Expand Access to Primary Care

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced more than $294 million in awards to primary care clinicians and students through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and NURSE Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs. This funding helps to increase access to primary health care services in the communities that need it most.

The NHSC and NURSE Corps programs provide funding to primary care clinicians and students to reduce their educational debt in exchange for their multi-year service in underserved communities. They also remove financial barriers for health professionals interested in practicing a primary care discipline, enabling them to pursue community-based careers. 

“The NHSC and NURSE Corps attract qualified providers to high-need communities in all 50 states and our U.S. territories. These programs increase critical access to primary care services and help build healthier communities,” said Acting Deputy Secretary for HHS Dr. Mary Wakefield.

This announcement coincides with Corps Community Month, which is observed every October and celebrates the impact of the NHSC in fueling the nation’s primary care workforce and the importance of choosing a career in primary care. Since 2008, we have more than doubled the size of Corps providers.

Today, more than 10,400 NHSC and 2,000 NURSE Corps clinicians provide culturally competent care to 11 million people.

“NHSC and NURSE Corps providers practice in a variety of urban and rural settings, making a positive impact in the communities they serve,” said HRSA Acting Administrator Jim Macrae. “More than half of NHSC clinicians provide care at community health centers across the country.”

These awards support the following programs:

National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program ($42.8 million) provides 205 new awards and 8 continuation awards to students pursuing primary care training leading to a degree in medicine, dentistry, or a degree as a nurse-midwife, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner in exchange for providing primary health care services in areas of greatest need.

National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program ($164.9million) provides 3,079 new awards 2,111 one-year continuation awards to fully trained primary care clinicians in exchange for providing primary health care services in an area of greatest need.

National Health Service Corps Students to Service Loan Repayment Program ($10.6 million) provides 92 new awards. This program provides loan repayment assistance to medical students in their last year of school in return for selecting and completing a primary care residency and working in rural and urban areas of greatest need.

NURSE Corps Scholarship Program ($24.5million) provides 230 new awards and 12 continuation awards to nursing students in exchange for a commitment to work at least two years in a facility with critical shortages.

NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program ($49.5million) provides 377 new awards and 302 one-year continuation awards to nurses in exchange for a commitment to serve at a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses or serve as nurse faculty at an accredited school of nursing. Additionally, the program provides 141 new awards and 63 continuation awards to nurse faculty, teaching RNs or Advanced Practice Nurses, at eligible public or private nonprofit schools of nursing.

Faculty Loan Repayment Program ($1.1 million) provides 21 new awards to health professions educators in exchange for serving as a faculty member in an accredited and eligible health professions school. The program also encourages participants to promote careers in their respective health care fields.

Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program ($889,613) provides 5 new awards and 3 continuation awards to Native Hawaiian health care professionals trained in those disciplines and specialties most needed to deliver quality, culturally competent, primary health services to Native Hawaiians in the State of Hawaii.

The bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 extended funding for the NHSC until 2017. Learn more about NHSC and NURSE Corps and view the detailed schedule of upcoming scholarship and loan repayment application cycles, as well as grant opportunities.

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