Rural Essential Access Provider (REAP) Loan Repayment Program

 
Before you begin a loan repayment application, you must be employed at a REAP approved site by the first day of the application cycle.
If your workplace is not on the approved sites list, request your site administrator or owner submit a site application.
Site application
Site applications are accepted year-round.
Eligibility for sites
  • Private practice, offering full scope outpatient primary care services, providing care to patients for at least two years prior to application.
  • Practice must be located in a rural or frontier county. See County Designations.
  • Practice must be located in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area.
  • Accepting current and new Medicaid, Medicare, CHP+ and offering a slide fee scale based on family size and annual income for those at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
  • Practice level proportion of Medicaid and SFS must together exceed 10 percent of patients served in the previous 12 months to be eligible for consideration.
  • Hours of operation must be conducive to patient and community access to clinic care services.
Required documentation to be submitted with site application
  • Current sliding fee scale policy that details how a sliding fee scale will be uniformly applied to all patients who meet family size and income requirements. It must be updated every year according to current Federal Poverty Guidelines.
  • Sliding fee scale patient application.
  • Non-discrimination statement.
  • Photo of signage posted in the clinic indicating the clinic:
    • Serves all patients regardless of ability to pay.
    • Offers discounted fees for patients.
    • Does not deny services based on a person's race, color, sex, disability, religion, sexual orientation or national origin.
    • Accepts insurance, including Medicaid, Medicare, Children's Health Insurance program and other programs accessible in Colorado, such as the Colorado Indigent Care Program.
Apply for REAP loan repayment - The REAP application is open from March 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.
Direct clinical care
  • A medically necessary medical, dental, mental or behavioral health visit or a qualified preventive health visit is direct clinical care. The visit must be a face-to-face/one-on-one encounter between the patient and clinician during which time one or more services are rendered.
  • Care rendered via telemedicine is not currently eligible to achieve the hours of direct care minimums.
Eligible health professions
  • Doctors of osteopathic or allopathic medicine (family medicine, geriatrics, general internal medicine, general psychiatry, general child psychiatry, general pediatrics, and general obstetrics and gynecology).
  • Clinical pharmacists (PharmD).
  • Licensed clinical or counseling psychologists (Ph.D., Psy.D.).
  • Licensed clinical social workers (master’s or doctoral degree in social work).
  • Licensed professional counselors (master’s or doctoral degree with a major study in counseling).
  • Licensed marriage and family therapists (master’s or doctoral degree with a major study in marriage and family therapy).
  • Certified nurse-midwives.
  • Nurse practitioners.
  • Physician assistants.
  • Psychiatric nurse specialist
If you are a DDS, DMD or RDH, you may be eligible for the state dental loan repayment program.
Award amounts
Full-time obligation:
$30,000 for physicians.
$15,000 for physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, clinical pharmacists and licensed mental health providers.
 
Part-time obligation:
$15,000 for physicians.
$7,500 for physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, clinical pharmacists and licensed mental health providers.
Service obligation
You must:
  • Agree to work for a term of two years at the approved site.
  • Work part time or full time.
  • Meet the hourly requirements for direct clinical contact during the entire service obligation.
Additional eligibility details​
Qualifying loans, licensure, employment status, competing service obligations.
 
Contact Kathy Jacobsen at kathy.jacobsen@state.co.us.