State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP)

The purpose of this program is to make grants to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories to assist them in operating their own state educational loan repayment programs for primary care providers working in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) within their state. SLRP supports loan repayment awards to health care providers in exchange for service in underserved communities. The American Rescue Plan Act provides funding to expand SLRP to provide grants to current grantees as well as to those States that have not previously participated. SLRP recipients are afforded the flexibility to select the disciplines and HPSA sites that meet their unique workforce needs. To that end, HRSA is encouraging SLRP applicants to consider how SLRP funds might be used to advance HHS priorities.

Entities eligible to apply for this grant program include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. In order to be eligible, states must demonstrate that the program operated with the grant funds will be administered directly by a state agency. States must also agree that the  grant funds will be used to pay all or part of the principal, interest, and related expenses of qualifying educational loans of health care professionals, in return for their provision of primary health care services in federally designated HPSA. The contract between the state and the health care professional must contain a breach provision and other terms that are not more favorable than the terms provided under the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program (LRP). See 42 U.S.C. 254q-1(c).

Paula Gumbs, MBA

(301)443-7581