There are dozens of towns and cities throughout the Silver State that are designated as medically underserved communities and attracting experts in the medical field to these often highly rural areas is an ever-present challenge.
With the aim of incentivizing health care professionals to provide their services in such communities, the Nevada State Treasurer’s Office has launched the Nevada Health Equity and Loan Assistance, or HEAL, program, which offers practicing medical professionals help with paying off the debt they may have accumulated while studying for their degree.
“The Nevada HEAL program will provide health care providers with up to $120,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for committing to serve in an underserved community in the state,” an announcement from the treasurer’s office detailed. “This program is the result of the passage of Assembly Bill 45 during the 2023 legislative session, which was sponsored by [Nevada State] Treasurer Zach Conine after he conducted the largest statewide listening tour in Nevada’s history.”
“After traveling the entire state after the COVID-19 pandemic, it became abundantly clear that we need to be doing everything we can to bring health care professionals to our most underserved communities,” Conine stated. “The Nevada HEAL program will be a critical component to ensuring we can attract the providers we need to increase access to care for residents across the state.”
All of Nye County is open to the program, as the entire county is considered underserved.
As detailed in the 2024 County Health Rankings Report, “Nye County is faring worse than the average county in Nevada for health outcomes and worse than the average county in the nation.”
According to the Patient Protection Commission, there were only 32 licensed physicians in Nye County in 2024, including 16 family medicine practitioners, four in emergency medicine, two in cardiovascular diseases, two dermatologists, two internal medicine practitioners and two internal medicine specialists. The list also includes one each in the family medicine specialist, geriatric medicine, medical oncology occupational medicine categories.
To qualify for the program, applicants must be a resident of Nevada who works in an eligible health care profession and is licensed, certified and/or registered to practice in Nevada. Additionally, applicants must be willing to commit to practicing in an underserved community for at least five years.
There is a wide array of eligible professions, ranging from dentists, optometrists and physicians to nurses, EMTs, paramedics, social workers, mental health professionals and much more.
The application period officially opened Jan. 15 and will remain open until Thursday, Feb. 13 at 11:59 p.m.
There are several webinars scheduled for those interested in learning more about the program. The first is set for today, Friday, Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. Additional webinars will follow on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m., Friday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m.
For more information or to access the webinars visit NevadaTreasurer.gov/HEAL/
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com