LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM

SELECTION CRITERIA

The IHS has identified the positions in each Indian health program for which there is a need or vacancy and ranked those positions in order of priority by developing discipline specific prioritized lists of sites. Ranking criteria for these sites included the following:

Historically critical shortages caused by frequent staff turnover;

Current unmatched vacancies in a Health Profession Discipline;

Projected vacancies in a Health Profession Discipline;

Ensuring that the staffing needs of Indian health programs administered by an Indian tribe or tribal or health organization receive consideration on an equal basis with programs that are administered directly by the Service; and

Giving priority to vacancies in Indian health programs that have a need for health professionals to provide health care services as a result of individuals having breached Loan Repayment contracts entered into under this section.

Consistent with this priority ranking, in determining which applications to approve and which contracts to accept, the IHS will give priority to applications made by AI/AN and to individuals recruited through the efforts of Indian tribes, tribal or Indian organizations.

With respect to priorities among the various health professions, Section 108(d)(3)(A)(i)-(ii) require that of the total amount appropriated for fiscal year 2000 for loan repayment contracts, not less than 25 percent be provided to applicants who are nurses, nurse practitioners, or nurse midwives and not less than 10 percent be provided to applicants who are mental health professionals (other than nurses, nurse practitioners, or nurse midwives). This requirement does not apply if the number of applicants from these two groups, respectively, is less than the 25 and 10 percent requirements;

Subject to the above statutory priority for nurses and mental health practitioners, the IHS will give priority in funding among health professionals to physicians in the following priority specialties: anesthesiology, emergency room medicine, general surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology/otorhinolaryngology, psychiatry and radiology.

The following factors are equal in weight when applied and would be applied when all other factors are equal between applicants. One or all of the following factors may be applicable to an applicant, and the applicant who has the most of these factors, all other criteria equal, would be selected.

An applicant's length of current employment in the IHS, tribal, or urban program;

Availability for service earlier than other applicants (first come, first served); and

Date the individual's application was received by the LRP.

Applicants will be accepted into the LRP according to the above mentioned priorities as long as funds remain available during the fiscal year.

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