County Medical Services Program Loan Repayment Program (CMSP LRP)

Application Cycle Dates #

Application Cycle Opens: January 2, 2020, 3:00 p.m.

Application Cycle Closes: March 2, 2020, 3:00 p.m.

Provider Eligibility#

• Awardee must meet the weekly hour requirements for his/her commitment
• Awardee must apply entire award amount to student loan debt during the awardee’s service dates
• Awardee must supply official lender statements, at the end of his/her service obligation,to enable verification that the entire award was applied to qualifying student debt

Below are the maximum award amounts offered to CMSP LRP awardees:

A provider is free to apply for more than one scholarship/loan repayment program at a time.However, a provider, if awarded, can only contract for one service obligation at a time.

The number of applicants awarded each year by CMSP LRP varies, depending upon the number of applications received. CMSP LRP aims to award as many applicants as possible, but is limited to the amount granted by the CMSP Governing Board.

Government and commercial loans incurred for the pursuit of a health profession education qualify for the program. Qualifying commercial lending institutions are those subject to examination and supervision by an agency of the United States, or by the State in which the institutions have their place of business. CMSP LRP does not include interest on educational loans as eligible sources of loan repayment. The following types of debt are not considered eligible under the program: loans that are in default, credit card debt, Primary Care Loans, personal lines of credit, and loans repaid in full. Eligible educational loans consolidated with loans owed by any other person, such as a spouse, are ineligible for repayment. For loans to remain eligible, applicant/participants must keep their eligible educational loans segregated from other debts.

CMSP LRP offers both full-time and half-time commitments. Full-time service requires a minimum of 40 hours per week; at least 32 of those hours must be spent providing direct patient care in an outpatient setting, during regular business hours. Half-time service requires a minimum of 20 hours per week, with at least 16 hours being spent providing qualifying direct patient care. All providers are allotted 35 days off per service year. Clinicians who exclusively provide OB/GYN or mental health care have fewer required outpatient care hours.

In order to become a CMSP Practice Site, a site must:

• Be located in one of 35 participating designated counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba.
• Have a fully executed contract with the County Medical Services Program Governing Board.
• Be on the CMSP approved list.

No. CMSP LRP staff does not provide job placement assistance. However, a list of CMSP Practice Sites is available online at http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/hwdd/cmsplrp.html. To secure employment, applicants should contact sites to discuss employment opportunities.

A provider can submit an application by visiting https://calreach.oshpd.ca.gov/, creating an account, and providing all required information during CMSP LRP’s application cycle.

The CMSP LRP application cycle varies slightly from year to year, but usually begins at the beginning of each year; visit http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/hwdd/cmsplrp.html for current information regarding the application cycles.

A current CMSP LRP provider may apply for an extension agreement during the regular annual application cycle. However, an awardee may be unable to apply for an extension if his/her current service dates overlap with the dates set for the new agreements.

Application scores depend on the following: applicant work experience with medically underserved communities, cultural and linguistic competence, and career goals. Although applicants are not required to be bilingual, bilingual applicants are favored. CMSP LRP also favors extension agreements from compliant awardees.

Applicants will be notified about their award statuses after the application cycle has closed and all applications have been scored. The application cycle lasts 60 days, and the scoring process time can vary depending upon the number of applications received.

CMSP LRP award payment plans vary from year to year. The disbursement of the first CMSP LRP check will depend upon the awardee’s agreement dates and terms.

Payments made under the County Medical Services Program Loan Repayment Program may be tax exempt.
OSHPD does not provide tax advice and this section may not be construed as tax advice from OSHPD. Grantee should seek advice from an independent tax consultant regarding the financial implication(s) of any financial incentive award.

No. An awardee is required to apply all CMSP LRP award funds to student loan debt by the end of his/her service obligation. S/he can choose to allocate those funds however s/he wishes (e.g. in one lump sum or by monthly payments). Regardless of how an awardee allocates his/her award funds, it is the provider’s sole responsibility to ensure that s/he makes the required monthly payments to lenders; provider must remain current on all payment schedules required by his/her lender(s).

If an awardee’s loans are consolidated during his/her CMSP LRP agreement term, s/he must notify CMSP LRP immediately, and provide all of the new corresponding loan information.

An awardee may move to another CMSP Practice Site during his/her agreement dates. S/he must notify CMSP LRP at least 30 days prior to leaving his/her original site.

If an awardee needs additional time off (other than that provided under the agreement), the awardee must contact CMSP LRP immediately; awardees’ requests can be accommodated, by extending agreement end dates to ensure that the original service obligation is still met.

An awardee that breaches his/her agreement with CMSP LRP will be responsible for repaying an amount equal to the sum of the following:

• Total of the amounts paid by CMSP LRP to, or on behalf of, the awardee for any portion of the service obligation not actually completed.
• $2,306.25 for each month of full-time service not completed under the agreement
• $1,153.13 for each month of half-time service not completed under the agreement

No. An awardee will only receive credit for time served after a service obligation has begun.

An awardee is eligible to participate in CMSP LRP for as long as s/he has student loan debt. CMSP LRP favors retention at our CMSP Practice Sites, so extension agreements are encouraged.