FIRST REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 532
91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR FOSTER.
Read 1st time February 21, 2001, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
2056S.01I
AN ACT
To amend chapter 340, RSMo, by adding thereto eight new sections relating to the large animal veterinary medicine loan repayment program.
Section A. Chapter 340, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto eight new sections, to be known as sections 340.335, 340.337, 340.339, 340.341, 340.343, 340.345, 340.347 and 340.350, to read as follows:
340.335. 1. Sections 340.335 to 340.350 establish a loan repayment program for graduates of approved veterinary medical schools who practice in areas of defined need and shall be known as the "Large Animal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program".
2. The "Large Animal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Fund" is hereby created in the state treasury. All funds recovered from an individual pursuant to section 340.347 and all funds generated by loan repayments and penalties received pursuant to section 340.347 shall be credited to the fund. The moneys in the fund shall be used by the Missouri veterinary medical board to provide loan repayments pursuant to section 340.343 in accordance with sections 340.335 to 340.350.
340.337. As used in sections 340.335 to 340.350, the following terms shall mean:
(1) "Areas of defined need", areas designated by the board pursuant to section 340.339, when services of a large animal veterinarian are needed to improve the client-doctor ratio in the area, or to contribute professional veterinary services to an area of economic impact;
(2) "Board", the Missouri veterinary medical board;
(3) "Large animal veterinarian", veterinarians licensed and registered pursuant to this chapter, engaged in general or large animal practice as their primary specialties, and who have at least fifty percent of their practice devoted to large animal veterinary medicine.
340.339. The board shall designate counties, communities or sections of rural areas as areas of defined need as determined by the board by rule.
340.341. 1. The board shall adopt and promulgate rules establishing standards for determining eligible persons for loan repayment pursuant to sections 340.335 to 340.350. Such standards shall include, but are not limited to the following:
(1) Citizenship or permanent residency in the United States;
(2) Residence in the state of Missouri;
(3) Enrollment as a full-time veterinary medical student in the final year of a course of study offered by an approved educational institution in Missouri;
(4) Application for loan repayment.
2. The board shall not grant repayment for more than five veterinarians each year.
340.343. 1. The board shall enter into a contract with each individual qualifying for repayment of educational loans. The written contract between the board and an individual shall contain, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) An agreement that the state agrees to pay on behalf of the individual, loans in accordance with section 340.345 and the individual agrees to serve for a time period equal to five years, or such longer period as the individual may agree to, in an area of defined need, such service period to begin within one year of the signed contract or graduation by the individual with a degree of doctor of veterinary medicine, whichever is later;
(2) A provision that any financial obligations arising out of a contract entered into and any obligation of the individual which is conditioned thereon is contingent upon funds being appropriated for loan repayments;
(3) The area of defined need where the person will practice;
(4) A statement of the damages to which the state is entitled for the individual's breach of the contract;
(5) Such other statements of the rights and liabilities of the board and of the individual not inconsistent with sections 340.335 to 340.350.
2. The board may stipulate specific practice sites contingent upon board generated large animal veterinarian need priorities where applicants shall agree to practice for the duration of their participation in the program.
340.345. 1. A loan payment provided for an individual pursuant to a written contract under the large animal veterinary medicine loan repayment program shall consist of payment on behalf of the individual of the principal, interest and related expenses on government and commercial loans received by the individual for tuition, fees, books, laboratory and living expenses incurred by the individual.
2. For each year of obligated services that an individual contracts to serve in an area of defined need, the board may pay up to ten thousand dollars on behalf of the individual for loans described in subsection 1 of this section.
3. The board may enter into an agreement with the holder of the loans for which repayments are made under the large animal veterinary medicine loan repayment program to establish a schedule for the making of such payments if the establishment of such a schedule would result in reducing the costs to the state.
4. Any qualifying communities providing a portion of a loan repayment shall be considered first for placement.
340.347. 1. An individual who has entered into a written contract with the board or an individual who is enrolled in a course of study and fails to maintain an acceptable level of academic standing in the educational institution in which such individual is enrolled or voluntarily terminates such enrollment or is dismissed from such educational institution before completion of such course of study or fails to become licensed pursuant to this chapter within one year after graduation shall be liable to the state for the amount which has been paid on such individual's behalf pursuant to the contract.
2. If an individual breaches the written contract of the individual by failing either to begin such individual's service obligation or to complete such service obligation, the state shall be entitled to recover from the individual an amount equal to the sum of:
(1) The total of the amounts paid by the state on behalf of the individual, including interest; and
(2) An amount equal to the unserved obligation penalty, which is the total number of months of obligated service which were not completed by an individual, multiplied by five hundred dollars.
3. The board may act on behalf of a qualified community to recover from an individual described in subsections 1 and 2 of this section the portion of a loan repayment paid by such community for such individual.
340.350. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, RSMo, that is created under the authority delegated in sections 340.335 to 340.350 shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536, RSMo, and, if applicable, section 536.028, RSMo. This section and chapter 536, RSMo, are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo, to review, to delay the effective date or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2001, shall be invalid and void.