Relating to the establishment of a mental health practitioner loan repayment program, and providing appropriations

This bill repeals the existing mental health professional loan repayment program within the college student aid commission, replaces the program with a mental health practitioner loan repayment program, and provides an appropriation. REPEALED PROGRAM. The mental health professional loan repayment program, enacted in 2022, was established to increase the number of nonprescribing mental health practitioners serving cities within federal mental health shortage areas in the state. The program was designed to provide loan repayment benefits to recipients for up to five consecutive years of full-time service, unless granted a waiver for part-time service. The maximum award under the program was $40,000, paid in annual installments of $8,000, toward outstanding federal Stafford loan, federal grad PLUS loan, and federal Perkins loan balances at the end of each 12-month employment period. If a recipient refinanced a federal loan with a private loan after signing the program contract, the recipient could continue to receive the loan repayment benefit as long as the recipient contacted the college student aid commission and provided the required documentation. In order to be eligible for the program, a person must have graduated from an eligible Iowa college or university with at least a master’s degree in psychology, counseling and guidance, social work, marriage and family therapy, or mental health counseling; have completed at least two years of post-degree clinical experience in assessing and diagnosing mental health needs and in providing mental health services while under the supervision of another individual in the mental health field; and have held a current, nonprescribing practitioner license. NEW PROGRAM. The bill requires the college student aid commission to establish a mental health practitioner loan repayment program for the purposes of providing loan repayments for mental health practitioners who agree to practice in service commitment areas for at least five years and meet the requirements of the bill. “Mental health practitioner” means a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a mental health professional, a physician assistant practicing under the supervision of a psychiatrist, or a psychiatric advanced registered nurse practitioner. Under the bill, an individual is eligible to apply if the individual is enrolled full-time in a curriculum leading to employment as a mental health practitioner. A program agreement must be entered into when the eligible student begins the final year of study in an academic program leading to eligibility for employment as a mental health practitioner. Under the agreement, an eligible student must agree to receive a graduate-level credential qualifying the credential recipient for employment as a mental health practitioner; receive a license to practice in this state; and within nine months of meeting the requirements of a mental health practitioner engage in full-time practice as a mental health practitioner for a period of five years in a service commitment area. Under the bill, the commission must give priority in making awards to: eligible students who are residents of Iowa upon enrolling in a university, who attended and earned an undergraduate degree from an Iowa college or university, or who attended and earned a medical degree from a medical school in Iowa; and who agree to practice in a service commitment area located in a mental health professional shortage area; to service commitment areas located in mental health professional shortage areas; and to eligible students who, during their five-year full-time practice, are actively participating in the Medicaid program. A service commitment area is defined as a city in Iowa that provides a certain contribution amount, based on the type of practitioner, for deposit in the mental health practitioner loan repayment program trust fund for each loan recipient in the community participating in the program. Under the bill, the loan repayment amount for a psychiatrist is $40,000 annually with a maximum of $200,000 for an eligible loan, not to exceed the total loan amount; for a psychologist or a mental health professional is $8,000 annually with a maximum of $40,000 for an eligible loan, not to exceed the total loan amount; and for a physician assistant practicing under the supervision of a psychiatrist or for a psychiatric advanced registered nurse practitioner is $10,000 annually with a maximum of $50,000, not to exceed the total loan amount. The bill includes provisions similar to those for other loan repayment and loan forgiveness programs for health professionals under Code chapter 261 including eligibility requirements, program agreements, program priorities, loan repayment amounts, refinanced loans, program agreement limitations, the selection of the service commitment area, rules for loan repayment, rules for additional loan repayment, part-time practice agreement amendments and loan repayment adjustments for part-time practice, postponement, and satisfaction of service obligations, the establishment of a trust fund for the program, the submission of annual reports regarding the program, and the adoption of administrative rules for the program. The bill provides definitions for the purposes of the bill and provides for an appropriation from the general fund of the state to the college student aid commission for FY 2023-2024 to be deposited in the mental health practitioner loan repayment program trust fund established under the bill to be used for the purposes of the program. The bill provides that program agreements entered into prior to July 1, 2023, under the prior mental health professional loan repayment program remain in full force and effect in accordance with the terms of the agreement.