It is the purpose of this article to increase the number of physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses in underserved rural areas of Georgia by making loans to physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses who have completed their medical or health care education and allowing such loans to be repaid by such physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses agreeing to practice medicine or provide health care services in such rural areas and by making grants to hospitals and, as determined by the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce, other health care entities, local governments, and civic organizations in underserved rural areas of Georgia that agree to provide matching funds to the grant, with the intent to enhance recruitment efforts in bringing physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses to such areas. It is the intent of the General Assembly that if funds are available to the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce to make loans, grants, or scholarships under this article or under other applicable state law, the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce shall give priority to loans and scholarships under Part 6 of Article 7 of Chapter 3 of Title 20 and to loans under Code Section 31-34-4.
(Code 1981, §31-34-2, enacted by Ga. L. 1989, p. 1234, § 1; Ga. L. 2006, p. 152, § 2B/HB 1178; Ga. L. 2009, p. 8, § 31/SB 46; Ga. L. 2010, p. 322, § 1/HB 866; Ga. L. 2011, p. 459, § 2/HB 509; Ga. L. 2017, p. 397, § 2/HB 427; Ga. L. 2018, p. 132, § 6/HB 769; Ga. L. 2019, p. 224, § 2/SB 207.)
The 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, in the first sentence, inserted ", dentists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses" four times, deleted "physician" preceding "underserved" twice, inserted "or health care", and inserted "or provide health care services".
The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, substituted "this article" for "this chapter" twice in this Code section.
The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, substituted "Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce" for "Georgia Board for Physician Workforce" in three places.
Law reviews.- For article on 2006 amendment of this Code section, see 23 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 197 (2006).