SPARC Act
Sponsored By: Senator Jacky Rosen
Introduced
Summary
Recruit and retain specialty clinicians in rural shortage areas. This bill would create a six-year, milestone-based federal loan repayment program to pay down eligible education loans for specialty medicine physicians and non-physician specialty health care providers who commit to full-time specialty practice in designated rural shortage communities.
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- Specialty medicine physicians would get annual payments equal to one-sixth of eligible loan principal and interest, with the remaining balance paid after the sixth year, subject to a $250,000 per-borrower cap.
- Non-physician specialty health care providers could participate but would be barred from other listed federal loan forgiveness programs, and no more than 15% of annual program funds could be awarded to them.
- Participants would commit to six years of full-time service in a qualifying rural shortage community, with no more than one year allowed between covered employment years and liquidated-damage rules for breaches.
- Rural patients and communities would likely gain more access to specialty services, while the Health Resources and Services Administration would publish workforce data and report to Congress starting within five years and then biennially through fiscal year 2033.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Loan relief for specialty providers
If enacted, the bill would create a HRSA-run loan repayment program for specialty medicine physicians and a limited parallel program for non-physician specialty providers in rural shortage areas. You would need to agree to six years of full-time service in a qualifying rural community, with no more than one year gap between service years. Each year HRSA would pay one-sixth of the principal and interest that existed when your service began, and after year six HRSA would pay the remainder. Total payments to any person could not exceed $250,000. Eligible loans would include Federal Direct Stafford, PLUS, Unsubsidized Stafford, consolidation loans, Federal Perkins Loans, and other federal education loans the Secretary allows. The bill would bar getting this program's repayment for the same service if you already get forgiveness under certain other federal health‑provider loan programs, and it would allow the Secretary to set a liquidated damages formula for breaches. The bill would authorize such sums as may be necessary to run the program for fiscal years 2025 through 2034.
Reports and public data on providers
If enacted, the Secretary would report to Congress not later than five years after enactment and then at least every two years through fiscal year 2033 on where program participants practice and how the program affected specialty care in rural shortage areas. The HRSA Administrator would also update publicly available data on the supply of specialty medicine physicians and non-physician specialty health providers as appropriate.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Jacky Rosen
NV • D
Cosponsors
Roger Wicker
MS • R
Sponsored 4/9/2025
Peter Welch
VT • D
Sponsored 6/4/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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