42 U.S.C. § 295j — Preferences and required information in certain programs

(a) Preferences in making awards. (1) In general. Subject to (2), when giving grants or contracts under two named sections, the Secretary must give preference to a qualified applicant that: (A) has a high rate of placing its graduates in practice settings mainly serving medically underserved communities; (B) has significantly increased that placement rate during the two years before the award year; or (C) uses a specific kind of longitudinal evaluation and reports its data to the national workforce database. (2) Limitation regarding peer review. The Secretary cannot give this preference if peer reviewers ranked the applicant's proposal at or below the 20th percentile of proposals they recommended for approval. (b) "Graduate" defined. Unless stated otherwise, "graduate" means someone who has finished all training and residency needed for full certification in their chosen health profession. (c) Exceptions for new programs. (1) In general. New programs that meet at least 4 of the criteria in (3) qualify for a funding preference too, so they can compete fairly. (2) Definition. A "new program" is one that has graduated fewer than three classes. Once it graduates three classes, it can provide the data needed to qualify for the regular preference in (a) instead. (3) Criteria. A new program can count criteria such as: (A) its mission statement names serving underserved populations as a specific purpose; (B) its curriculum helps prepare students to serve underserved populations; (C) it requires substantial clinical training in medically underserved communities; (D) at least 20 percent of its clinical faculty spend at least half their time providing or supervising care in underserved communities; (E) all or a substantial part of the program is physically located in an underserved community; (F) it offers student aid tied to future service in underserved communities; and (G) it has a placement mechanism for sending graduates to underserved communities.