§ 128552 Physician Underserved Area Definitions

For purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply: (a) “Account” means the Medically Underserved Account for Physicians established within the Health Professions Education Fund pursuant to this article. (b) “Fund” means the Health Professions Education Fund. (c) “Medi-Cal threshold languages” means primary languages spoken by limited-English-proficient (LEP) population groups meeting a numeric threshold of 3,000, eligible LEP Medi-Cal beneficiaries residing in a county, 1,000 Medi-Cal eligible LEP beneficiaries residing in a single ZIP Code, or 1,500 LEP Medi-Cal beneficiaries residing in two contiguous ZIP Codes. (d) “Medically underserved area” means an area defined as a health professional shortage area in Part 5 of Subchapter A of Chapter 1 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations or an area of the state where unmet priority needs for physicians exist as determined by the department. (e) “Medically underserved population” means the Medi-Cal program and uninsured populations. (f) “Department” means the Department of Health Care Access and Information. (g) “Physician Volunteer Program” means the Physician Volunteer Registry Program established by the Medical Board of California. (h) “Practice setting,” for the purposes of this article only, means a facility or setting delivering direct patient care, as defined by the department. (i) “Primary specialty” means family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, or obstetrics/gynecology. (j) “Program” means the Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program. (Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 594, Sec. 2. (SB 909) Effective January 1, 2025.)