Delaware’s expansive new healthcare provider loan repayment program is still struggling to find takers, prompting the state Health Care Commission to consider loosening eligibility requirements.
The program is intended to entice new primary care specialists – including both physicians and nurses – to practice in Delaware by offering up to $50,000 in student loan forgiveness per year for up to four years.
But the program received no applicants for its first two cohorts in the summer and fall of last year. The most recent round drew four applicants, all of whom joined the program and will continue practicing in Delaware until at least December 2024.
But Public Health Administrator Stephanie Hartos says the program is still underperforming the Commission’s hopes, especially in light of nationwide health care staffing shortages.
“It is really exciting that we were able to get four people in, but as you all know, this was meant to be a very robust program," she said. The General Assembly budgeted $1.5 million for the program in fiscal year 2023.
With few completed applications for the next round, Health Care Commission Chair Dr. Nancy Fan floated the idea of allowing more established health care professionals to apply for loan forgiveness. Fan says the current rules – which require applicants to have graduated within six months of starting the program – were well-intended.
“I think that when we were initially looking at it from a legislative point of view," she told the Commission this week, "we wanted to make sure that someone who had been practicing for five or ten years here in Delaware were not the ones who would be getting the loans all the time. It’s not that they’re not deserving of the loans.”
Fan suggested that it may be necessary to ask the legislature to allow those practicing medicine for a year or more to apply.
The Commission has received only two complete applications for the next cohort, with the application window closing on February 1st.
