TITLE 31 HEALTH

Section 34. Medical Professionals for Rural Assistance, 31-34-1 through 31-34-20.

ARTICLE 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

31-34-4. Loan applicant qualifications; rules and regulations.

1. A physician, dentist, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse who receives a loan under the program provided for in this article shall be a citizen or national of the United States licensed to practice his or her health care profession within the State of Georgia at the time the loan is made, and shall be a graduate of an accredited graduate medical education program or other applicable accredited health care education program located in the United States which has received accreditation or provisional accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or the American Osteopathic Association or such other applicable accreditation for other health care education programs, as determined by the board.
2. The board shall make a full investigation of the qualifications of an applicant for a loan under the provisions of this article to determine the applicant's fitness for participation in such loan program, and for such purposes, the board may propound such examinations to applicants as the board deems proper. The board's investigation shall include a determination of the outstanding medical or health care education loans incurred by the applicant while completing his or her medical or health care education and training.
3. The board is authorized to consider among other criteria for granting loans under the provisions of this article the state residency status and home area of the applying physician, dentist, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse and to give priority to those applicants who are physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses actively practicing or beginning active practice in specialties experiencing shortages or distribution problems in rural areas of this state as determined by the board pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by it in accordance with this article.
4. The board may adopt and prescribe such rules and regulations as it deems necessary or appropriate to administer and carry out the loan program provided for in this article. Such rules and regulations shall provide for fixing the rate of regular interest to accrue on loans granted under the provisions of this article. Such regular rate of interest shall not exceed by more than 2 percent the prime rate published from time to time by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Within such limitation, the regular rate of interest may be increased for new recipients of loans under this article.

(Code 1981, §31-34-4, enacted by Ga. L. 1989, p. 1234, § 1; Ga. L. 2006, p. 152, § 2C/HB 1178; Ga. L. 2009, p. 859, § 2/HB 509; Ga. L. 2010, p. 322, § 1/HB 866; Ga. L. 2017, p. 397, § 3/HB 427; Ga. L. 2018, p. 132, § 6/HB 769.)

The 2010 amendment, effective July 1, 2010, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "A physician who receives a loan under the program provided for in this chapter shall be licensed to practice medicine within the State of Georgia at the time the loan is made and shall be a graduate of an accredited four-year medical school located in the United States which has received accreditation or provisional accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education of the American Medical Association or the Bureau of Professional Education of the American Osteopathic Association for a program of education designed to qualify the graduate for licensure by the Georgia Composite Medical Board."

The 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, in subsection (a), inserted ", dentist, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse", substituted "his or her health care profession" for "medicine", inserted "or other applicable accredited health care education program", and added "or such other applicable accreditation for other health care education programs, as determined by the board."; in subsection (b), in the second sentence, inserted "or health care" twice; and, in subsection (c), near the middle, inserted ", dentist, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse", and inserted ", dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses".

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, substituted "this article" for "this chapter" throughout this Code section.