§254t Demonstration Project

Summary

The Secretary must set up a short-term test program that lets chiropractors and pharmacists join the Loan Repayment Program under section 254l–1. People in the test must follow all the program’s rules except for two specific subparts of section 254l–1(b)(1). Participants will work in both rural and urban sites. The Secretary cannot place a participant at a site unless a physician or another health professional who can prescribe drugs is also assigned there under sections 254m or 254n and will work there at the same time. That does not mean the physician must supervise the participant, and State licensing rules still apply. For fiscal years 2002 through 2004, the Secretary must not count this test or its providers when deciding health professional shortage areas. No State is required to take part. The Secretary must evaluate the test and send a report to four congressional committees: the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The report must say how the test affected access, patient satisfaction, quality, care for underserved people, effects on shortage-area designations, and whether adding chiropractors and pharmacists permanently to the National Health Service Corps would work. Money is authorized as needed for fiscal years 2002 through 2004. If by September 30, 2004 the Secretary certifies there were too few participants to do the evaluation, funding may be extended to include fiscal year 2005.