§ 903. Primary care physician loan repayment program. 1. The
commissioner, in collaboration with the commissioner of education and
the president of the higher education services corporation, is
authorized and directed to establish a physician loan repayment program
to encourage medical students to enter primary care specialties and to
serve underserved areas and populations.

2. The commissioner is authorized, within amounts available pursuant
to subdivision nineteen-a of section twenty-eight hundred seven-c and
section twenty-eight hundred seven-l of this chapter, to make loan
repayment awards as follows:

(a) beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-four, to any
resident who first entered a primary care medical training program on or
after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-four in the second or third
year of such program; provided such resident agrees to practice primary
care in an underserved area in New York state for one year for each such
annual award received, with such practice beginning immediately after
completion of such residency training. Such resident shall be eligible
for an award of up to ten thousand dollars per year and beginning
January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to fifteen thousand
dollars per year; and

(b) beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-five, to a
primary care physician, emergency medicine physician or other physician
specialty determined by the commissioner to be in short supply, licensed
to practice medicine in New York state, who agrees to practice for at
least two years in an underserved area. Such physician shall be eligible
for a loan repayment award of up to ten thousand dollars per year and
beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to fifteen
thousand dollars per year for each of the first two years of practice in
such area; provided, however, if such physician agrees to practice for
an additional two years in such area, then such physician shall be
eligible for an award of up to fifteen thousand dollars per year and
beginning January first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven of up to twenty
thousand dollars per year for each of the second two years of such
practice.

3. Loan repayment awards made to a physician pursuant to subdivision
two of this section shall not exceed the total qualifying outstanding
debt of the physician from student loans to cover tuition and other
related educational expenses, made by or guaranteed by the federal or
state government, or made by a lending or educational institution
approved under title IV of the federal higher education act. Loan
repayment awards shall be used solely to repay such outstanding debt.

4. Within such time as the commissioner shall by regulation provide, a
recipient of an award shall have practiced as a primary care physician
in an underserved area in the state of New York or, in the case of a
recipient of an award after completion of residency training, the
recipient shall have practiced in an underserved area for that number of
months calculated by multiplying by twelve the number of annual awards
received by the recipient. If a recipient fails to comply fully with
such conditions, the president shall be entitled to receive from such
recipient an amount to be determined by the formula:

A = 2B(t-s)

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t
In which "A" is the amount the president is entitled to recover, "B" is
the sum of all payments made to the recipient and the interest on such
amount which would be payable if at the times such awards were paid they
were loans bearing interest at the maximum prevailing rate; "t" is the
total number of months in the recipient's period of obligated services;
and "s" is the number of months of services actually rendered by the
recipient. Any amount which the president is entitled to recover under
this subdivision shall be paid within the five-year period beginning on
the date that the recipient failed to comply with this condition. Any
obligation to comply with such provisions shall be canceled upon the
death of the recipient. The commissioner of health shall promulgate
regulations to provide for the waiver or suspension of any financial
obligation when compliance would involve extreme hardship.

5. The commissioner is authorized to apply any funds available for
purposes of subdivision two of this section for use as matching funds
for federal grants for the purpose of assisting states in operating loan
repayment programs pursuant to section three hundred thirty-eight I of
the public health service act.

6. The commissioner, in consultation with the council, shall
promulgate regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions and
purposes of this section.