II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1380
To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize a loan repayment
program to encourage specialty medicine physicians to serve in rural
communities experiencing a shortage of specialty medicine physicians,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL9, 2025
Ms. R
OSEN(for herself and Mr. WICKER) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize a
loan repayment program to encourage specialty medicine
physicians to serve in rural communities experiencing
a shortage of specialty medicine physicians, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Specialty Physicians 4
Advancing Rural Care Act’’ or the ‘‘SPARC Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SPECIALTY MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS WORKFORCE 1
IN RURAL COMMUNITIES. 2
Title VII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 3
292 et seq.) is amended— 4
(1) by redesignating part G (42 U.S.C. 795j et 5
seq.) as part H; and 6
(2) by inserting after part F (42 U.S.C. 295h) 7
the following new part: 8
‘‘PART G—SPECIALTY MEDICINE WORKFORCE IN 9
RURAL COMMUNITIES 10
‘‘SEC. 782. LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM. 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.— 12
‘‘(1) P
ROGRAM FOR SPECIALTY MEDICINE PHY -13
SICIANS.—The Secretary, acting through the Admin-14
istrator of the Health Resources and Services Ad-15
ministration, shall carry out a program under 16
which— 17
‘‘(A) the Secretary enters into agreements 18
with specialty medicine physicians to make pay-19
ments in accordance with subsection (b) on the 20
principal of and interest on any eligible loans 21
described in subsection (c); and 22
‘‘(B) the specialty medicine physicians 23
each agree to complete a period of obligated 24
service described in subsection (d) as a specialty 25
medicine physician in the United States in a 26
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rural community experiencing a shortage of 1
specialty medicine physicians. 2
‘‘(2) P
ROGRAM FOR NON -PHYSICIAN SPECIALTY 3
HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS .—The Secretary, acting 4
through the Administrator of the Health Resources 5
and Services Administration, may carry out a pro-6
gram under which— 7
‘‘(A) the Secretary enters into agreements 8
with non-physician specialty health care pro-9
viders to make payments in accordance with 10
subsection (b) on the principal of and interest 11
on any eligible loans described in subsection (c); 12
and 13
‘‘(B) the non-physician specialty health 14
care providers each agree to complete a period 15
of obligated service described in subsection (d) 16
as a non-physician specialty health care pro-17
vider in the United States in a rural community 18
experiencing a shortage of such providers. 19
‘‘(b) P
AYMENTS.—For each year of obligated service 20
by a specialty medicine physician pursuant to an agree-21
ment under subsection (a)(1) or by a non-physician spe-22
cialty health care provider pursuant to an agreement 23
under subsection (a)(2), the Secretary shall make a pay-24
ment to such physician or provider as follows: 25
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‘‘(1) SERVICE IN SHORTAGE AREA .—The Sec-1
retary shall pay— 2
‘‘(A) for each year of obligated service by 3
a specialty medicine physician or non-physician 4
specialty health care provider pursuant to an 5
agreement under paragraph (1) or (2) of sub-6
section (a),
1
⁄6of the principal of and interest 7
on each eligible loan of the physician or pro-8
vider which is outstanding on the date the phy-9
sician or provider began service pursuant to the 10
agreement; and 11
‘‘(B) for completion of the sixth and final 12
year of such service, the remainder of such 13
principal and interest. 14
‘‘(2) M
AXIMUM AMOUNT.—The total amount of 15
payments under this section to any specialty medi-16
cine physician or non-physician specialty health care 17
provider shall not exceed $250,000. 18
‘‘(c) E
LIGIBLELOANS.—The loans eligible for repay-19
ment under this section are each of the following: 20
‘‘(1) Any loan for education in specialty medi-21
cine or specialty health care. 22
‘‘(2) Any Federal Direct Stafford Loan, Fed-23
eral Direct PLUS Loan, Federal Direct Unsub-24
sidized Stafford Loan, or Federal Direct Consolida-25
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tion Loan (as such terms are used in section 455 of 1
the Higher Education Act of 1965). 2
‘‘(3) Any Federal Perkins Loan under part E 3
of title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965. 4
‘‘(4) Any other Federal loan as determined ap-5
propriate by the Secretary. 6
‘‘(d) P
ERIOD OFOBLIGATEDSERVICE.—Any spe-7
cialty medicine physician or non-physician specialty health 8
care provider receiving payments under this section as re-9
quired by an agreement under paragraph (1) or (2) of sub-10
section (a) shall agree to a 6-year commitment to full-time 11
employment, with no more than 1 year passing between 12
any 2 years of covered employment, as a specialty medi-13
cine physician or non-physician specialty health care pro-14
vider, as applicable, in the United States in a rural com-15
munity experiencing a shortage of specialty medicine phy-16
sicians or non-physician specialty health care providers, as 17
applicable. 18
‘‘(e) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR DOUBLEBENEFITS.—No 19
borrower may, for the same service, receive a reduction 20
of loan obligations or a loan repayment under both— 21
‘‘(1) this section; and 22
‘‘(2) any federally supported loan forgiveness 23
program, including under section 338B, 338I, or 24
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846 of this Act, or section 428J, 428L, 455(m), or 1
460 of the Higher Education Act of 1965. 2
‘‘(f) B
REACH.— 3
‘‘(1) L
IQUIDATED DAMAGES FORMULA .—The 4
Secretary may establish a liquidated damages for-5
mula to be used in the event of a breach of an 6
agreement entered into under paragraph (1) or (2) 7
of subsection (a). 8
‘‘(2) L
IMITATION.—The failure by a specialty 9
medicine physician or a non-physician specialty 10
health care provider to complete the full period of 11
service obligated pursuant to such an agreement, 12
taken alone, shall not constitute a breach of the 13
agreement, so long as the physician or provider com-14
pleted in good faith the years of service for which 15
payments were made to the physician or provider 16
under this section. 17
‘‘(g) S
PECIALRULES FOR NON-PHYSICIANSPE-18
CIALTYHEALTHCAREPROVIDERS.—Non-physician spe-19
cialty health care providers participating in the program 20
under this section are not eligible for other Federal loan 21
forgiveness programs specific to health care providers. Not 22
more than 15 percent of amounts made available to carry 23
out this section for a fiscal year may be allocated to 24
awards to non-physician specialty health care providers. 25
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‘‘(h) REPORTS TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 5 1
years after the date of enactment of this section, and not 2
less than every other year thereafter through fiscal year 3
2033, the Secretary shall report to Congress on— 4
‘‘(1) the practice location of special medicine 5
physicians and non-physician specialty health care 6
providers participating, or who have participated, in 7
the loan repayment program under this section; and 8
‘‘(2) the impact of the loan repayment program 9
under this section on the availability of specialty 10
medicine or specialty health care services in the 11
United States in rural communities experiencing a 12
shortage of specialty medicine physicians or non- 13
physician specialty health care providers. 14
‘‘(i) D
ATAUPDATES.—The Administrator of the 15
Health Resources and Services Administration shall up-16
date publicly available data on the supply of specialty med-17
icine physicians and non-physician specialty health care 18
providers, as appropriate. 19
‘‘(j) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 20
‘‘(1) N
ON-PHYSICIAN SPECIALTY HEALTH CARE 21
PROVIDER.—The term ‘non-physician specialty 22
health care provider’ means a health professional 23
other than a physician who is licensed to provide pa-24
tient care other than primary care services. 25
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‘‘(2) SPECIALTY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN .—The 1
term ‘specialty medicine physician’ means a physi-2
cian practicing in an area of medicine other than 3
primary care. 4
‘‘(k) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 5
carry out this section, there are authorized to be appro-6
priated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 7
2025 through 2034.’’. 8
Æ
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