42 U.S.C. § 294d — Quentin N. Burdick program for rural interdisciplinary training

(a) Grants: The Secretary may make grants or contracts under this section to help entities fund activities authorized under an application approved under subsection (c). (b) Use of amounts: (1) In general: Funds must be used to run interdisciplinary training projects designed to (A) use new or evidence-based methods to train health care practitioners for rural areas; (B) demonstrate and evaluate new interdisciplinary models that give access to cost-effective, comprehensive health care; (C) deliver health care to people living in rural areas; (D) increase relevant research on rural health care issues; and (E) increase recruiting and retaining health care practitioners from rural areas, making rural practice a more attractive career choice. (2) Methods: A recipient may use methods such as (A) giving stipends to students at eligible applicant schools; (B) setting up a post-doctoral fellowship program; (C) training faculty in the economic and logistical problems of rural health care delivery systems; or (D) buying or renting transportation and telecommunications equipment, where the rural area's unique features show the equipment is needed. (3) Administration: (A) An applicant may not spend more than 10 percent of its funds on administrative expenses. (B) No more than 10 percent of the people trained with grant funds may be doctors of medicine or osteopathy. (C) An institution must use grant funds to add to, not replace, the amount it already spent on these activities the year before receiving the grant. (c) Applications: An application must (1) be submitted jointly by at least two eligible applicants, for the express purpose of helping academic institutions build long-term collaborative relationships with rural health care providers, and (2) name a rural health care agency or agencies for clinical treatment or training — such as hospitals, community health centers, migrant health centers, rural health clinics, community behavioral and mental health centers, long-term care facilities, Native Hawaiian health centers, or facilities run by the Indian Health Service, a tribe, or a tribal organization under contract with the Indian Health Service. (d) Definitions: For this section, "rural" means geographic areas located outside standard metropolitan statistical areas.