The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is a federal agency that is committed to improving access to healthcare for the nation’s underserved. The NHSC collaborates with communities in need to develop and expand health care in rural and inner-city neighborhoods alike, where access challenges are due to language, geographic, cultural or financial barriers. The NHSC offers this support to communities in the form of scholarship or loan repayment funding to clinicians who are dedicated to serving these populations. Loan repayment and scholarship awards are made in exchange for an obligated period of service at an approved site. Both the site and the clinician seeking loan repayment need to submit separate applications and meet eligibility criteria and be approved for the clinician to receive funding. Eligible sites of service must be in a Health Professional Shortage Area, take Medicaid and Medicare patients, and provide a sliding fee discount schedule to patients who are compromised in their ability to pay for care.
More information is available on the National Health Service Corps web site, or by calling toll free: 1-800-221-9393.