Health Professions Programs: Health Professions Student Loan (October 2000)

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

The Health Professions Student Loan (HPSL) Program is similar to the campus-based programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, particularly the Federal Perkins Loan, because:

• the Federal Government supplies most of the money; and
• the institutions are responsible for administering the program directly according to requirements specified in law, regulations and policy directives from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The source of funding for HPSL consists of four components:

• Federal Capital Contributions, or FCC;
• Institutional Capital Contributions, or ICC;
• student repayments; and
• other earnings on the fund (i.e., institutional investment during interim periods when HPSL funds are waiting to be awarded to students as loans).

In recent years, Congress has used the HPSL program as a mechanism to meet certain policy goals. Specifically, variations on the program in the form of the Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS) and the Primary Care Loan (PCL) are intended to encourage greater participation of disadvantaged populations in the health professions and to increase the number of primary health care providers, respectively.