Introduced Version
House Bill 2545 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2545
(By Delegates Ellington, Poling, M., Rowan, Miller,
Sumner, Pasdon, Perdue, Faircloth, Perry, Marcum and Nelson, E.)
[Introduced February 19, 2013; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §18C-3-4, relating to
health professionals student loan programs; creating the
Nonresident Medical Student Tuition Regularization Program;
legislative findings; stating a purpose of offering
nonresident medical students a partial tuition waiver as a
means of recruiting practicing physicians to under-served
areas and to primary care and practitioner shortage fields in
West Virginia; establishing eligibility; requiring nonresident
medical students to commit to rendering services for one
calendar year as a medical doctor or a doctor of osteopathy in
this state for each academic year for which he or she
participates in the program; providing a penalty for failure
to satisfy service commitment; and requiring the Higher
Education Policy Commission to promulgate rules to implement
the program.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §18C-3-4, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3. HEALTH PROFESSIONALS STUDENT LOAN PROGRAMS.
§18C-3-4. Nonresident Medical Student Tuition Regularization
Program.
_____(a) Findings. -- The Legislature finds as follows:
_____(1) There is a critical need for additional primary care
physicians practicing in West Virginia;
_____(2) West Virginia has an aging population, and an increasing
need for recruiting primary care physicians and placing primary
care physicians in rural areas of the state;
_____(3) West Virginia has a historically low retention rate of
state resident medical students following graduation;
_____(4) Efforts by the medical schools in West Virginia to
increase class sizes as a means of increasing the number of
physicians practicing in the state have been largely ineffective;
_____(5) The primary care field of practice yields a lower wage
than other medical specialties and maintains an extreme shortage of
practicing physicians, particularly in rural areas of the state;
_____(6) The high cost of nonresident medical education tuition,
and resulting high level of debt incurred by students, often prohibit nonresident graduates who remain in the state from
entering a primary care practice;
_____(7) Many nonresident medical students in West Virginia have
indicated that they would be willing to remain in the state as a
practicing physician if they could afford to;
_____(8) A waiver of the state resident to nonresident tuition rate
differential would offset the significant student debt load
incurred by nonresident medical school graduates;
_____(9) Beginning a medical practice with up to four years
committed to practicing medicine in a specific area has a strong
likelihood of influencing a nonresident medical school graduate to
remain in that area following the service commitment;
_____(10) Investing resources, developing professional networks,
and creating community ties all serve to create permanent
connections to an area for an individual who is not originally from
that area; and
_____(11) Attracting practicing physicians to rural and medically
under-served areas of the state will further attract related
health-care professionals that support a medical practice or
facility and will expand the economic and job-growth potential of
such areas.
_____(b) Purpose. - It is the purpose of this section to offer
nonresident medical students a partial tuition waiver as a means of
recruiting practicing physicians to under-served areas, and to primary care and practitioner shortage fields in West Virginia.
_____(c) Program established. - There is created the Nonresident
Medical Student Tuition Regularization Program to be administered
by the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences in cooperation with the
deans of the three medical schools in the state.
_____(1) Two nonresident medical students from each medical school
in the state are selected annually to participate in the program
subject to the exception provided in subsection (f) of this
section.
_____(2) Each student selected is charged the state resident
tuition rate for each academic year he or she is enrolled in the
program, and has the cost differential between the resident and
nonresident rates waived by the institution at which he or she is
enrolled.
_____(3) For each academic year that a medical student participates
in the program, he or she shall commit to render services for one
calendar year as a medical doctor or a doctor of osteopathy in this
state in a medically under-served area or in a primary care or
specialty practice or field in which there is a shortage of
physicians, as determined by the Division of Health at the time the
application for the program is submitted. The service commitment
begins within six months after graduation from an accredited
residency program.
_____(4) Once selected to participate in the program, a student may continue in the program for as long as he or she continues to meet
the eligibility criteria in subsection (d) of this section, for a
maximum of four academic years.
_____(d) Eligibility. -- An individual is eligible for enrollment
or continuation in the program if he or she meets the following
criteria:
_____(1) Is enrolled or accepted for enrollment at the West
Virginia University School of Medicine, the Marshall University
School of Medicine, or the West Virginia School of Osteopathic
Medicine in a program leading to the degree of medical doctor
(M.D.) or doctor of osteopathy (D.O.);
_____(2) Has not yet received one of the degrees provided in
subdivision (1) of this subsection;
_____(3) Satisfies the academic standards established by the
program rule;
_____(4) Is not in default of any previous student loan;
_____(5) Is a nonresident student who is charged nonresident
tuition rates;
_____(6) Commits to render services for one calendar year as a
medical doctor or a doctor of osteopathy in this state in a
medically under-served area or in a primary care or speciality
practice or field in which there is a shortage of physicians for
each academic year for which he or she participates in the program;
_____(7) Submits to the Higher Education Policy Commission:
_____(A) An application for enrollment in the program as provided
by the commission; and
_____(B) A sworn statement of commitment to service on a form
provided by the commission for that purpose; and
_____(8) Other criteria as established by the program rule.
_____(e) Penalty for failure to satisfy service commitment. -
_____(1) A program participant violates the service commitment if
he or she:
_____(A) Fails to render services as a medical doctor or doctor of
osteopathy in accordance with the sworn statement he or she
submitted to the commission. This includes failure to begin
serving within six months of completing an accredited residency
program, or failure to complete each one-year term to which he or
she committed to serve; or
_____(B) Fails to complete or remain enrolled in the medical
education program for which he or she obtained the tuition waiver.
_____(2) A program participant who violates the service commitment
is subject to the following:
_____(A) He or she shall repay the amount of nonresident tuition
charges waived plus interest at a rate of fifteen percent per
annum;
_____(B) The granting or renewal of a license to practice medicine
in West Virginia or to reciprocal licensure in another state based
upon licensure in West Virginia is contingent upon commencing payment and continuing payment until full repayment of the
obligation if the recipient fails to complete the required practice
commitment. A license, renewal or reciprocity may not be granted
to an individual whose repayments are in arrears. The West
Virginia Board of Medicine shall inform all other states where a
recipient has reciprocated based upon West Virginia licensure of
any refusal to renew licensure in West Virginia as a result of
failure to repay the tuition amount.
_____(f) Rule. -- The commission shall promulgate a rule in
accordance with section six, article one, chapter eighteen-b of
this code to implement this section. The rule shall provide for:
_____(1) A method for selecting annually the six new students to be
enrolled in the program, with priority consideration to applicants
in the earliest academic years of the medical education program;
_____(2) A method for selecting greater or fewer than two
participants from a single medical school in any year where two
suitable applicants are not available at each school;
_____(3) A method for the applicant to select the service area or
specialty to which he or she commits to practice medicine;
_____(4) A method for developing a mutually agreeable modification
to the terms of a participant's service commitment regarding the
medically under-served area or primary care or speciality practice
or field in which he or she committed to serve under circumstances
where the Division of Health determines at the time the participant's service commitment is scheduled to commence that the
area is no longer medically under-served or that primary care or
service specialty is no longer experiencing a physician shortage;
_____(5) Provisions for enforcing sanctions against a participant
who fails to satisfy the service commitment; and
_____(6) Such other provisions as the commission considers
necessary to administer the program.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to offer nonresident
medical students a partial tuition waiver as a means of recruiting
practicing physicians to under-served areas and to primary care
and practitioner shortage fields in West Virginia.
This section is new; therefore, it has been completely
underscored.
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