Bill Text: NY A04695 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Transfers any unspent funds from the regents health care professional opportunity scholarship program to the regents physician loan forgiveness program; provides direction to distribute these funds to meet the same purposes as originally intended.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to higher education [A04695 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A04695-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4695

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 22, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. PRETLOW -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Higher Education

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to funding  of  physician
          loan forgiveness programs

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 9 of  section  605  of  the  education  law  is
     2  amended by adding a new paragraph g to read as follows:
     3    g.  Use  of  excess  funds  from  the regents health care professional
     4  opportunity scholarships. Any funds applied  toward  this  program  from
     5  unused  allocations directed toward the regents health care professional
     6  opportunity scholarships, pursuant to subdivision ten of  this  section,
     7  shall  be  distributed  in accordance with regents rules that shall give
     8  priority to physicians who are economically disadvantaged and/or members
     9  of an underrepresented minority group. Awardees  shall  provide  service
    10  payback  in  an  area designated as having a shortage of physicians, but
    11  not limited to, primary care services.
    12    § 2. The opening paragraph of subdivision 10 of  section  605  of  the
    13  education law, as added by chapter 31 of the laws of 1985, is amended to
    14  read as follows:
    15    Regents  health  care  professional  opportunity scholarships shall be
    16  awarded annually to students who are beginning or engaged in an approved
    17  program in medicine or dentistry and who are economically  disadvantaged
    18  and/or members of an underrepresented minority group, provided, however,
    19  that  to  the  extent  that regents health care professional opportunity
    20  scholarships are not awarded, such [scholarships  shall  be  awarded  as
    21  regents  professional  opportunity scholarships] remaining funding shall
    22  be applied to the regents  physician  loan  forgiveness  program.  These
    23  scholarships  shall  be  classified  and  allocated  in  accordance with
    24  regents rules.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09473-01-3
        A. 4695                             2

     1    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately, provided that the  amend-
     2  ments to subdivisions 9 and 10 of section 605 of the education law, made
     3  by sections one and two of this act, shall not affect the termination of
     4  such  program  and  scholarship  respectively  pursuant to section 17 of
     5  chapter  31 of the laws of 1985, as amended, and such program and schol-
     6  arship shall terminate therewith.