Grants to States for Loan Repayment Program

Criteria for Selecting Proposals

For new and competing continuation grants the following criteria will be used to evaluate State applications to determine which States are to be supported under this notice: (a) The extent of the State's need for health professionals consistent with the health professions and specialties identified later in this notice; (b) the extent to which special consideration will be extended to federally designated HPSAs with large minority populations; (c) the number and type of providers the State proposes to support through this program; (d) the appropriateness of the proposed placements of State LRP recipients (e.g., consistency and coordination with State-based plans to improve access to primary health services for the underserved communities and individuals); (e) the appropriateness of the qualifications, the administrative, and managerial ability of the staff to implement the proposed project; (f) the suitability of the State's approach and the degree to which the plan of a State is coordinated with Federal, State, and other programs for meeting the State's health professional needs and resources, including mechanisms for ongoing evaluation of the program's activities; (g) the source and plans for the use of the nonfederal match (the degree to which the nonfederal match exceeds the minimum requirements or has increased over time and the amount of the match relative to the needs and resources of the State); (h) for competing continuation applicants only, the grantee's progress in achieving stated goals and objectives for the previous year's grant; this includes a progress report on the impact the State LRP placements have had on the State's short-term and long-term professional needs: (i) an assessment of the reasons for initial breaches by health professionals of repayment contracts; and (j) the grantee's history of compliance with reporting requirements. Noncompeting continuation applications will be evaluated on the grantee's progress in achieving stated goals and objectives for the previous year's grant; this includes a progress report on the impact the State LRP placements have had on the State's short-term and long-term professional needs: (i) and assessment of the reasons for initial breaches by health professionals of repayment contracts; and (ii) the grantee's history of compliance with reporting requirements.