The Rural Health Scholars Program is a tuition assistance program for RI healthcare graduate students planning to work for a rural healthcare provider in RI. Graduate students can apply for up to $20,000 a year in tuition assistance for eligible healthcare graduate programs in exchange for committing to employment in a RI rural healthcare setting for 5 years after licensure. Funding is provided by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Rural Health Transformation Program to improve the health and healthcare services of rural Rhode Islanders. Rhode Island is working towards a connected, community-based system that ensures every rural resident has timely, coordinated, high-quality care where they live. This program will build lasting infrastructure that empowers communities to lead their own health transformation.

The Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) has allocated the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority (RISLA) over $2 million dollars in rural tuition assistance for the 27-28 academic year to administer the Rural Health Scholars Program.

More details to come.