Improving provider capacity is a long-term endeavor. Increasing the pipeline of health professionals training now is one way to add capacity in the future. Health professional schools can recruit and train providers to meet identified areas of need.

*Milestone details:

*Full name: Develop a strategy in conjunction with the state’s health professional school(s) to increase training of needed health professionals in identified priority areas.

*Relevance to the ACA:

The ACA makes changes to graduate medical education loans and includes incentives to increase training of medical professionals:

§5201 - Limits to 10 years the required service in primary care for medical students who receive federal loans.

§5203 - Creates a new loan program for primary care physicians.

§5205 - Allows loan forgiveness for allied health professionals.

§5508, §10501, §10908 - Expand options for loan forgiveness through the National Health Service Corps.

Several ACA sections authorize grants to support training: §5301 – primary care; §5302 – long term care workers; §5303 and §5304 – dental professionals; §5305 – Geriatric nursing; §5308 and §5309 - nursing education; §5508 – Teaching Health Centers; §5606 – rural providers; §10501 – preventive medicine.

§5202, §5310, §5311 - Expand loan options for nurses.