Relating to specialty areas, service commitment area distance requirements, and practice-related requirements under the rural Iowa primary care loan repayment program

This bill modifies the requirements for the rural Iowa primary care loan repayment program. The bill adds obstetrics and gynecology as an area of specialization that qualifies for loan repayment under the program. Currently, a person can engage in less than full-time practice under the program if the person applies to the college student aid commission to amend their program agreement and the commission determines that exceptional circumstances exist. The bill eliminates the language relating to exceptional circumstances, thereby allowing the commission and the person to consent to amend the agreement to allow the person to engage in less than full-time practice for an extended period of part-time practice. Under the bill, “less than full-time” means at least percent of a 40-hour workweek. The bill modifies the definition of “service commitment area” to include a city within a designated federal mental health shortage area that provides a $20,000 contribution for deposit in the rural Iowa primary care trust fund for a physician specializing in psychiatry, and to require that the distance between a city with a population of less than 26,000 that is located miles from a city of at least 50,000 be calculated using the shortest driving distance between the cities.