The bill broadens DPH’s Student Loan Repayment Program to (1) require community-based providers to provide, or arrange access to, behavioral health services, in addition to other services currently required (e.g., primary and preventative health services) and (2) expand the types of primary care clinicians that may be recruited through the program to include psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and licensed professional counselors.

By law, the program provides three-year grants to community-based primary care providers to expand health care access to the uninsured by (1) funding direct services, (2) recruiting and retaining primary care clinicians and registered nurses by subsidizing salaries or loan repayment programs, and (3) funding capital expenditures. In practice, the program has been inactive since 2012, but generally repays education loans in exchange for a specified period of employment in federally designated health professional shortage areas.