State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP)

Background
The State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP) is a grant program that aims to assist the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories in operating their own state educational loan repayment programs for primary care providers working in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) within their state. The program supports loan repayment awards to health care providers in exchange for service in underserved communities. The American Rescue Plan Act provides funding to expand SLRP to provide grants to current grantees as well as to those States that have not previously participated.

Grant Details
The program aims to recruit and retain providers to sustain a growing primary health care workforce working in HPSA within their state, encourage state level partnership/cooperation with other stakeholders to address/meet state’s health care workforce needs, increase access to primary care services in underserved communities, decrease health care disparities in underserved communities, and improve overall health care outcomes in underserved communities.

The program also encourages applicants to consider how SLRP funds might be used to advance HHS priorities such as ending the crisis of opioid addiction and overdose, improving access to mental health care, transforming the healthcare system through value-based care delivery and quality improvement initiatives, strengthening health care access through telehealth, preventing and reducing maternal mortality, and ending the HIV epidemic.

Eligibility Requirements
Entities eligible to apply for this grant program include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. States must demonstrate that the program operated with the grant funds will be administered directly by a state agency and agree that the grant funds will be used to pay all or part of the principal, interest, and related expenses of qualifying educational loans of health care professionals in return for their provision of primary health care services in federally designated HPSA.

Period of Performance
The period of performance is from September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2026 (4 years).

Grant Value
Approximately $25,000,000 per year is available for funding with an estimated 50 grants. A maximum of 10 percent of funding may be requested per year for administrative and management costs of the program.