Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 January 2014 — Loan repayment program [ARTICLE]

Loan repayment program

Eleven doctors and advanced practice nurses will receive up to $40,000 eaeh to repay their student loans in exchange for working in a Heahh Profession Shortage Area in Hawai'i for two years. A total of $394,474 will be given to the 1 1 awardees on five islands, including Dr. Jasmine Waipa, a pediatrician at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Heahh Center and graduate of Kamehameha Schools, Harvard University and Stanford School of Medicine; Denise Houghtailing, a family nurse practitioner at the Moloka'i Community Heahh Center, who is in a doctorate program through Johns Hopkins University doing a Capstone Project on providing services to victims of sex and child abuse on Moloka'i; and Dr. Christopher Lawlis, a psychiatrist at Hālawa Correctional Facility, who says, "I am very interested in homeless and ehemieal dependence issues, and I believe the incarcerated ean be helped to get back on track." Dr. Kelley Withy, the John A. Bums School of Medicine professor who leads the Hawai'i State Loan Repayment Program, said the 1 1 recipients are "making a difference in eommunities where they are needed the most." The loan repayment program was launched in 2012 to address a severe shortage of physicians and other heahh workers in the state. The state Legislature authorized the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa schools of medicine and nursing to establish the program. Funding is from Affordable Care Act money and donations from HMSA, The Queen's Medical Center and Aloha Care. In 2012, five health care workers received loan repayment awards. Withy said she hopes that with state support, the program ean continue to grow to 50 recipients annually.