HHS lures primary care providers with $9M

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the National Health Service Corps has awarded $9.1 million to students in 30 states who are preparing to become primary care providers.

The money is made available by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which established the NHSC’s Students to Services Loan Repayment Program to help provide financial support for fourth-year medical students committed to working as primary care providers or in communities with limited access to care.

The program provides loan assistance of up to $120,000 to medical students in their last year of study who commit to serving three years of full-time service or six years of half-time service in rural and urban areas of greatest need.

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

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