II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 632
To amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to allow Indian Health
Service scholarship and loan recipients to fulfill service obligations
through half-time clinical practice, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY19, 2025
Ms. C
ORTEZMASTO(for herself and Mr. MULLIN) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to allow
Indian Health Service scholarship and loan recipients
to fulfill service obligations through half-time clinical
practice, 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 ‘‘IHS Workforce Parity 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 632 IS
SEC. 2. INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE SCHOLARSHIP AND LOAN 1
RECIPIENTS. 2
(a) I
NDIANHEALTHPROFESSIONS SCHOLAR-3
SHIPS.—Section 104(b)(3) of the Indian Health Care Im-4
provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1613a(b)(3)) is amended by 5
striking the paragraph designation and all that follows 6
through the end of subparagraph (A) and inserting the 7
following: 8
‘‘(3)(A) The active duty service obligation under a 9
written contract with the Secretary under section 338A 10
of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254l) that 11
an individual has entered into under that section shall, 12
if that individual is a recipient of an Indian Health Schol-13
arship— 14
‘‘(i) be met by full-time (as defined in section 15
331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 16
254d(j))) practice— 17
‘‘(I) in the Service; 18
‘‘(II) in a program conducted under a con-19
tract entered into under the Indian Self-Deter-20
mination and Education Assistance Act (25 21
U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); 22
‘‘(III) in a program assisted under title V; 23
or 24
‘‘(IV) in the private practice of the applica-25
ble profession if, as determined by the Sec-26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 632 IS
retary, in accordance with guidelines issued by 1
the Secretary, the practice— 2
‘‘(aa) is situated in a physician or 3
other health professional shortage area; 4
and 5
‘‘(bb) addresses the health care needs 6
of a substantial number of Indians; or 7
‘‘(ii) be met by half-time (as defined in section 8
331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 9
254d(j))) practice in a program described in any of 10
subclauses (I) through (IV) of clause (i) if the indi-11
vidual agrees, in writing— 12
‘‘(I) to double the period of obligated serv-13
ice that would otherwise be required if the indi-14
vidual were satisfying the period of obligated 15
service through full-time (as so defined) prac-16
tice; and 17
‘‘(II) that if the individual fails to begin or 18
complete the period of obligated service de-19
scribed in subclause (I), the procedures de-20
scribed in section 108(l)(2) for determining 21
damages for breach of contract will be used 22
after converting that period of obligated service 23
or service performed into its full-time equiva-24
lent.’’. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 632 IS
(b) INDIANHEALTHSERVICELOANREPAYMENT 1
P
ROGRAM.—Section 108 of the Indian Health Care Im-2
provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1616a) is amended— 3
(1) in subsection (f)(1)(B), by striking clause 4
(iii) and inserting the following: 5
‘‘(iii) to serve for a period of time (re-6
ferred to in this section as the ‘period of 7
obligated service’) equal to— 8
‘‘(I) 2 years, or a longer period 9
of time as the individual may agree to 10
serve, in the full-time (as defined in 11
section 331(j) of the Public Health 12
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254d(j))) clin-13
ical practice of the profession of the 14
individual in an Indian health pro-15
gram to which the individual may be 16
assigned by the Secretary; 17
‘‘(II) 4 years, or a longer period 18
of time as the individual may agree to 19
serve, in the half-time (as defined in 20
that section) clinical practice of the 21
profession of the individual in an In-22
dian health program to which the in-23
dividual may be assigned by the Sec-24
retary, subject to the condition that if 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 632 IS
the individual has agreed to serve for 1
a period longer than 2 years of full- 2
time (as so defined) service, as de-3
scribed in subclause (I), the half-time 4
(as so defined) service obligation shall 5
be the amount of time required for 6
the individual to complete an equiva-7
lent amount of service on a half-time 8
(as so defined) basis; or 9
‘‘(III) 2 years in the half-time 10
(as so defined) clinical practice of the 11
profession of the individual in an In-12
dian health program to which the in-13
dividual may be assigned by the Sec-14
retary with a loan payment amount 15
equal to 50 percent of the amount 16
that would otherwise be payable for 17
full-time (as so defined) service for 18
that same period of obligated service; 19
and 20
‘‘(iv) in the case of an individual com-21
pleting a period of obligated service 22
through half-time (as so defined) clinical 23
practice, that if the individual fails to 24
begin or complete that period of obligated 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 632 IS
service, the procedures described in sub-1
section (l)(2) for determining damages for 2
breach of contract under this section will 3
be used after converting the period of obli-4
gated service or service performed into its 5
full-time (as so defined) equivalent;’’; and 6
(2) in subsection (l)(2), in the undesignated 7
matter following subparagraph (D), by inserting the 8
following before ‘‘Amounts’’: ‘‘Periods of obligated 9
service completed in half-time (as defined in section 10
331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 11
254d(j))) clinical practice shall be converted to their 12
full-time (as defined in that section) equivalents for 13
purposes of determining damages for breach of con-14
tract under this paragraph.’’. 15
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:24 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS