National Health Services Corps(NHSC) Update

As directed by legislation enacted in 2002, the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) student loan re-imbursement program is supposed to begin including DCs this year. The ACA is awaiting a long-delayed announcement by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on the program guidelines. The announcement is overdue to appear in the Federal Register and HRSA has indicated that it will finally appear within the next few days.

The NHSC program will require a DC to sign a 2 year commitment to work at an eligible community health center and take all patients -- paying and non-paying. In return, the NHSC will pay $25,000 of student loan debt for each of the two years of work.

The task now for an interested doctor is to contact the eligible community health centers, seek to enter into employment agreement, and then apply to the NHSC program. After an exhaustive search of the community health centers database, undertaken jointly with the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), we have identified sites (listed below) that are both eligible and most likely to be interested including an employment agreement with DCs. It is expected that HRSA will announce a June deadline for applications so DCs are urged to begin contacting these centers -- or others they may have worked with -- today.

Eligible DEMO Sites with Chiropractic Services:

Other Locations of Sites Mentioned: (unknown if chiropractic services provided)