(a) If the Graduate Medical Education Residency Expansion Board determines that funds appropriated under this subchapter are available after all eligible planning grant applications under §§ 6-82-2002 and 6-82-2003 have been funded, the board shall award planning grants from excess funds to support medical residents who:
(1) Have completed at least three (3) years of residency; and
(2) Are enrolled in a residency program in a field in which this state has less than eighty percent (80%) of the national average of physicians per one hundred thousand (100,000) people, as determined by the board.
(b) The board shall determine the following with respect to planning grants under this section:
(1) The amount of a planning grant awarded under this section;
(2) The number of planning grants awarded under this section; and
(3) The residency fields in which recipients of planning grants under this section work.
(c) A planning grant under this section shall be used to support the direct resident costs to the graduate medical education program, including without limitation stipends and benefits.
(d) The board shall distribute a planning grant amount for a residency position under this section only upon receiving verification that the applicable residency position has been filled.