The bill establishes the Colorado rural health-care workforce
initiative (initiative) to expand the number of health-care professionals practicing in Colorado's rural or frontier counties. As part of the initiative, an institution of higher education (institution) is authorized to establish and operate a health-care professionals rural track within any health-care
professional education program offered by the institution.
A rural track must set aside seats in its health-care professional
education program for students who express an interest in studying and working in a rural or frontier county, offer didactic curriculum related to practicing the health-care discipline in rural or frontier counties, place students in rural or frontier counties for hands-on instruction and training, and award scholarships to students in the rural track. In order to receive a scholarship, a student must commit to working as a health-care professional in a rural or frontier county for 2 years after completing education and training.
The rural office at the university of Colorado's school of medicine
(rural program office) provides technical assistance to the institutions operating a rural track regarding recruiting and admitting students committed to working in rural areas and identifying rural or frontier counties in which students may be placed for clinical training. The rural program office also facilitates, arranges, or advises an institution about arranging housing for students placed in a rural or frontier county. The rural program office must provide, without charge, to institutions operating a rural track, didactic curriculum related to practicing in rural or frontier counties. The bill requires the rural program office to annually evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative and report to the general assembly's education committees about the initiative.
The bill requires the general assembly to annually appropriate
$150,000 to the rural program office to support institutions that operate a rural track. For state fiscal year 2022-23, the general assembly is required to appropriate up to $400,000 to certain institutions to establish or expand rural tracks in 12 programs specified in the bill.
