Eligibility Criteria

• Are You Eligible?
• IHS Career Categories
• Qualifying Loans

Are You Eligible?

As a health or allied health professional, you are eligible to apply* if you:

• Are a U.S. citizen
• Are committed to practice at an IHS or other Indian health program priority site
• Can begin service on or before September 30 for two continuous years of full-time clinical practice
• Have a degree in a health profession or are in postgraduate training or in your final year of a health profession school
• Have a valid state license to practice in a health profession or will be obtaining a license to practice (You can still apply if you have not yet obtained a license.)
• Currently meet at least one of the following requirements:
  • are eligible or hold an appointment as a commissioned officer in the Regular or Reserve Corps of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
  • meet the professional standards requirements for Civil Service employment in the IHS
  • are employed in an Indian health program without service obligation
  • are still in school but have a job offer from an Indian health program

* Health professionals with a service obligation (e.g., IHS Scholarship recipients, SRCOSTEP, long-term training recipients) are also eligible to apply once they have fulfilled that obligation.

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IHS Career Categories

You are eligible to apply to the LRP if you are specializing in any of these career categories:

• Advanced Practice Nurses — Nurse Practitioner, Certified Nurse Midwife, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) (priority consideration will be given to CRNAs)
• Chemical Dependency Counseling: Bachelor's and master's degree levels
• Clinical Psychology: PhD only
• Dental Hygiene
• Dentistry
• Diagnostic Radiology Technology: Certificate, Associate and BS
• Engineering (Environmental): BS (Engineers must provide environmental engineering services to be eligible.)
• Environmental Health (Sanitarian): BS
• Health Records: RHJT and RHTA
• Medical Technology: Associate and BS
• Medicine: Allopathic and Osteopathic
• Nurse: Associate, BS and MS degree
• Optometry
• Pharmacy: BS, PharmD
• Physical Rehabilitation Services — Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech-language Pathology and Audiology: MS and DPT
• Physician Assistant
• Podiatry: DPM
• Public Health Nutritionist/Registered Dietician
• Respiratory Therapy
• Social Work: Master's degree-level only
• Ultrasonography
• Other health professions as determined by the needs of Indian health programs

While all of these career categories are eligible to apply, the career categories that are actually funded each year change depending on Indian health program staffing needs. Below is a table of LRP awards distributed during Fiscal Year (FY) 2008.

*Physician Assistant/Advanced Practice Nurses

Site priority scores are an important part of the LRP selection process. To learn more about site priority scores and site locations, please view the priority list page and Federal Register Notice (9/1/2009 - PDF - 52KB).

To learn more about all of the career categories within the Indian Health Service, please visit our IHS Public Health Professions Web site.

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Qualifying Loans

The LRP repays qualifying health professions education loans.

Qualifying loans are limited to government (federal, state, local) and commercial loans used to pay for health profession schools and related expenses, including tuition, fees, books, lab expenses and reasonable living expenses.

A number of federal program loans require documentation, but do not require additional verification since they already meet statutory requirements. Such loans include the following:

• Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) Program
• Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) Program
• Perkins Loan, formerly National Direct Student Loan (NDSL) Program
• Health Professions Student Loan (HPSL) Program
• Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS)
• Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) Loans

All other loans require lender verification, including loans from undergraduate and graduate health professions schools.

For consolidated loans (health professions education loans combined with commercial, non-health profession or other education loans), only the health professions portion for the career category for which you are hired can be repaid by the LRP. For further clarification, see some examples here.

More information regarding qualifying loans can be found in the LRP Application Handbook (9/6/2009 - PDF - 669KB).

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