Historical Background

National Health Service Corps

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The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is committed to improving the health of the Nation's underserved by uniting communities in need with caring health professionals and supporting those communities' efforts to build better systems of care.

The Emergency Health Personnel Act of 1970 created the National Health Service Corps (NHSC).  Designed to provide comprehensive primary health care that bridges geographic, financial, cultural, and language barriers, the NHSC works to unite communities in need with caring health professionals, then supports those communities’ efforts to build better systems of care.

Underserved areas have been particularly vulnerable to losing access to primary care due to a number of concurrent trends, including an increase in physician specialization, an increase in centralization of health care providers, and a marked decrease in the number of primary care physicians.  These issues led to serious fractures in the health care system at the primary care level.  In response, the NHSC has become a critical part of the plan to repair the nation’s health care delivery system.

The NHSC created two major programs to serve America’s health care needs:

1. Scholarship Program (SP):  Provides payment of tuition, fees, and stipends for scholars in exchange for a future period of service. 
2. Loan Repayment Program (LRP):  Provides payment toward student loans for primary care clinicians who agree to begin service immediately. 

Over the years, the number of clinicians in those programs has grown from just 180 to the 4,600 clinicians currently serving in primary medical, oral, dental, and mental and behavioral health fields nationwide. 

The NHSC continues to place health professionals throughout the country.  It has created new health services in areas where Americans had little or no access to primary health care.  The importance of this federal program is highlighted by the millions of Americans who are dependent upon the NHSC for primary care.

National Advisory Council on the National Health Service Corps

From its inception, the fifteen-member National Advisory Council on NHSC (Council) was created by Congress to advise the administration on the NHSC.  The members are part of the health professional workforce, as well as specialists with knowledge of underserved communities and health care implementation and improvement.  They serve in an advisory capacity to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The Council has spent the last year engaged in extensive review of the NHSC program, including its legislation, policies and procedures.  As a result of this review, the Council finds the need for increased investment in the NHSC to respond to the growing access gaps to primary health care in underserved areas.  Currently, there are 50 million Americans who lack access to primary health care.  Meeting this immediate need requires 27,000 primary care professionals willing to serve in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). ^[4]     This represents a more than five-fold increase over the current 4,600 clinicians who diligently serve in the NHSC programs.  The Council believes doubling the NHSC in its capacity of recruiting, matching and retaining primary care clinicians for underserved areas will positively impact the current challenge before the nation.