6/19/2003
The
HHS Exchange Visitor Program announced the availability of applications to
request waiver of the two-year foreign residency
requirement for physicians with J-1 visas who agree to deliver health care
services for three years in primary care or mental health Professional Shortage
Areas (HPSAs) or medically underserved areas or populations (MUA/Ps).
Eligibility
to apply for HHS waiver requests is limited to primary care physicians, and
general psychiatrists who have completed their primary care or psychiatric
residency training programs. Primary care physicians are defined as: physicians
practicing general internal medicine, pediatrics, family practice or
obstetrics/gynecology and who are willing to work in a primary care HPSA or MUA/P;
and general psychiatrists willing to work in a Mental Health HPSA.
The
regulations restrict eligibility to primary care physicians, and general
psychiatrists who have completed their primary care or psychiatric residency
training programs no more than 12 months before the date of commencement of
employment under the contract described below. 45 CFR 50.5(b).
The
petitioning health care facility must establish that it has recruited actively
and in good faith for U.S. physicians in the recent past, but has been unable to
recruit a qualified U.S. physician.
The
head of a petitioning health care facility must execute a statement to confirm
that the facility is located in a specific, designated HPSA or MUA/P, and that
it provides medical care to Medicaid and Medicare eligible patients and the
uninsured indigent.
The
Exchange Visitor must execute a statement that he or she does not have pending,
and will not submit, other IGA waiver requests while HHS processes the waiver
request.
The
employment contract must require the Exchange Visitor to practice a specific
primary care discipline or general psychiatry for a minimum of three years, 40
hours per week in a specified HPSA or MUA/P. It may not include a non-compete
clause that limits the Exchange Visitor's ability to continue to practice in any
HHS-designated primary care or mental health HPSA or MUA/P after the period of
obligation.
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