NHSC NHSC LRP Question

[Davquan]

Hello all!

Hopefully I am posting this in the correct forum.

I have a pretty specific question regarding the NHSC LRP (2 year commitment - 50K).
I work as a dentist at a FQHC and received my LRP funds right in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. Due to the student loan payment & interest freeze, I have been sitting on my 50K instead of making payments towards my loans. I now have 8 more months till the end of my 2 year commitment, and I am up for applying for a continuation contract (1 year - 20K). In order to apply for the 1 year contract, you must show proof of funds being used towards your loans.

This is where it gets really specific and where the questions come up.

My hesitation to apply for a continuation contract is because I went 1.5 days over my allowed 35 days off (7 weeks off per year) for the first year of my commitment. Based on the language in the LRP guide, if you go over the allowed days off it could negatively impact if your continuation contract will be approved.

Does anyone have experience with how lenient the NHSC committee is regarding going over days off and reapplying for the continuation? I was not able to get a clear cut answer from calling and emailing NHSC.

This leads to three potential scenarios depending on if I apply for the continuation contract.

#1 - Put 50K towards my loans, reapply, receive the continuation contract, continue to use the new funds to pay loans once it is unfrozen.
#2 - Put 50K towards my loans, reapply, get denied the continuation contract, use own salary to pay loans once unfrozen. (I truly enjoy serving my population through my FQHC and the contract definitely makes it possible to do so as I work in the Bay area).
#3 - Decline applying for the continuation contract, keep the 50K until loans unfreeze, make monthly payments using the 50K for 2-3 years as I am on income-based repayment and pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness. **This is based on if I can keep unused funds past completion of my commitment. Can anyone clarify on this? If I were to not use all the funds prior to the end of my commitment, would I be in breach of contract and owe penalties?**

Thanks for reading!

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[Notsosuperman]

I can’t give you definite answers, but hopefully can help. I went over the number of days on one of my terms, I forget if it was between terms, or at my final term. But I remember being worried about how strictly they talked about going over your time, and maybe even how that can affect your future eligibility (again, don’t remember if I was applying again). When I contacted them, they were really chill about it. Just said that how it works is that I’d fill out my ISV for the term, they would see that I went two days over, and the. They would assign me a new ISV to do in two days time to make sure that I went to work those days. My gut instinct is that the preference they give currently awarded LRP people, would outweigh going over a few days.

As for the other aspect. I think that they only require confirmation that the funds are used for loans if you are reapplying. I am not sure whether it would technically be a breach of contract, but again, my gut says they have bigger fish to fry than confirming the funds were used that way. And if you think about it, the main concern would have to be that they confirm you used all your funds to pay loans off so that IF you are reapplying, they aren’t allowing people to milk the system and get more money than they had in loans. I never really thought about that until now, but it seems like they probably couldn’t care what you used the funds for as long as they are making sure people aren’t milking the system.

Good luck. Hope that helps. Pretty sweet setup you ended up being able to get interest on 50k for a couple years. Too bad rates weren’t better!