Ark. Code Ann. § 6-81-701 (2020)

As used in this subchapter:

1. “Medically underserved” means an area in Arkansas that the Arkansas Rural Medical Practice Student Loan and Scholarship Board determines has unmet needs for medical services due to factors, including without limitation:
   1. The ratio of primary care physicians to population;
   2. The infant mortality rate;
   3. The percentage of:
      1. Population with incomes below the federal poverty level, as it existed on January 1, 2017;
      2. Resident individuals sixty (60) years of age and older; and
      3. Physicians sixty (60) years of age and older;
   4. Accessibility within the area to primary care medicine; and
   5. Other relevant criteria the board may deem necessary for a determination of unmet needs for medical services;
2. “Primary care medicine” means health care provided in one (1) of the following areas of practice:
   1. Family medicine;
   2. General internal medicine;
   3. General internal medicine and pediatrics;
   4. General pediatrics;
   5. General obstetrics and gynecology;
   6. General surgery;
   7. Emergency medicine; and
   8. Geriatrics; and
3. “Qualified rural community” means an area:
   1. With a population below twenty thousand (20,000) according to the most recent federal census;
   2. That is at least twenty (20) miles from a city or town with a population of more than twenty thousand (20,000) according to the most recent federal census; and
   3. That is reasonably determined by the board to be medically underserved.

History. Acts 1949, No. 131, § 9; 1955, No. 69, § 2; 1963, No. 181, § 1; 1971, No. 133, § 7; 1971, No. 533, § 7; 1972 (1st Ex. Sess.), No. 62, § 1; 1981, No. 47, § 2; 1983, No. 649, § 1; 1985, No. 797, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 80-2916; Acts 1987, No. 151, § 3; 1991, No. 359, § 2; 1995, No. 1114, § 1; 1995, No. 1257, § 1; 2003, No. 676, § 1; 2007, No. 1058, § 1; 2009, No. 708, § 1; 2017, No. 132, § 1.

A.C.R.C. Notes. Acts 1991, No. 359, § 3, provided that the amendments to this section by that act were to be applied retroactively to loan contracts entered into prior to March 5, 1991.

Acts 1995, No. 1257, § 4 provided “The provisions of this act shall not apply to any person entering a Rural Medical Practice Student Loan prior to the 1995-96 school year or to any subsequent Rural Medical Practice Student Loan contracts entered into by those persons.”

Publisher's Notes. Acts 1995, No. 1114 took effect April 10, 1995.

Acts 1995, No. 1257 took effect July 28, 1995.

Amendments. The 2009 amendment, in (2), inserted “or income incentive” and deleted “provided the loan recipient has identified a community or communities that have agreed to accept that loan recipient in the designated specialty” following “community”; inserted (4)(H); and made related changes.

The 2017 amendment deleted former (1) and (2) and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly; in the first sentence of (1), substituted “an area in Arkansas that the Arkansas Rural Medical Practice Student Loan and Scholarship Board determines has” for “an area that the board determines to have”; in (1)(C)(i), substituted “January 1, 2017” for “January 1, 2007”; and rewrote (3).