NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2339
SPONSOR: Woerner TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to providing for
dentist loan repayment and practice support
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill establishes a dentist loan repayment and practice support
program to increase the number of dentists practicing in underserved
areas, including at facilities or dentist offices that primarily serve
an underserved population.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds two new paragraphs to subdivision 5-a of section 2807-m
of the public health law. Paragraph (c-1) establishes a dentist loan
repayment program up to $1.2 million for each state fiscal year for the
period April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028. Paragraph (d-1) establishes a
dentist practice support program up to $1.3 million for each fiscal year
for the period April 1,2025 to March 31, 2028.
Section 2 adds new paragraph 10-a to section 2807-m of the public health
law to establish the parameters of the dentist loan repayment program.
Section 3 sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Despite graduating 750 dentists annually - among the highest number of
any state - New York continues to struggle with unmet need, particularly
with respect to Medicaid recipients and other vulnerable populations.
Several barriers contribute to the challenges of providing access to
dental care to low-income, rural or developmentally disabled individ-
uals, including the exorbitant costs of attending dental• school and
establishing a dental practice, perennially insufficient Medicaid
reimbursement rates, and too few dentists practicing in rural and high
need areas.i This bill seeks to attract more dentists to practice in
underserved areas by making it more affordable for them to do so through
student loan repayment and practice support.
New York State currently has 161 dental Health Practitioner Shortage
Areas (HPSAs), including 117 designated HPSA facilities and 44 desig-
nated HPSA population groups (mostly Medicaid eligible populations)ii
This means that each of these designations has a population-to-provider
ratio of at least 4000 people per 1 dentist. Because NYS currently
meets only 16.15% of the documented need, the federal Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA) estimates that New York needs an
additional 588 dentists to remove all of its dental HPSA designations.
The NYS Department of Health also recognizes the need for additional
dentists in strategic locations and, beginning in 2010, identified stra-
tegies for increasing access to dental services.'"
Dental school graduates typically have greater student loan debt than
their medical school counterparts. In 2023, the average medical school
graduate owed $265,000, whereas the average dental school graduate owed
$296,500." To entice dentists to practice in New York's dental HPSAs,
this bill offers funding for loan repayment and practice support that is
comparable to the funding currently offered to physicians; it provides
for up to $50,000 annually for three years for dentists practicing in
underserved areas in hospitals or other facilities or up to $70,000
annually for three years to dentists practicing in underserved areas in
private practice.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.10638 of 2024: referred to Health
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
$2,500,000 per year for three fiscal years.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to have been
in full force and effect on and after April 1, 2025.
Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health
& Human Services. HPSA Designations. HPSA Find. See
https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/shortage-area/hpsa-find.
Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health
& Human Services. Health Workforce Shortage Areas.
https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas. Data as of
12/9/2024.
Bureau of Health Workforce, Health Resources and Services Adminis-
tration, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Designated Health
Professional Shortage Areas Statistics, Fourth Quarter of Fiscal Year
2024 Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary. As of September 30, 2024.
NYS Department of Health, Increasing the Supply of Dentists, Midwives,
Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners in Underserved Areas
Through Doctors Across New York Physician Loan Repayment Program Incen-
tives, February 2010.
See https://educationdata.org/average-medical-school-debt and
https://educatlondata.org/average-dentalschool-debt. Accessed on
12/10/2024.
