39-6108. CRITERIA FOR APPLICANTS. (1) Applicants must be existing health care facilities that:

(a) Have an active taxpayer identification number in Idaho; and

(b) Have provided medical or mental health care in Idaho for a minimum of twelve (12) months prior to submitting the application, or meet the requirements for a new start as defined in this chapter.

(2) The waiver request to the department must come from a U.S. health care facility on behalf of the physician and not directly from the physician or his representative.

(3) J-1 visa waiver and national interest waiver petitioners with fellowship training must contract with employers to provide primary care services full time.

(4) Applicants must not be former J-1 visa waiver or national interest waiver physicians who are currently fulfilling their required three (3) or five (5) year obligation.

(5) Applicants may not submit waiver requests for a relative.

(6) Applicants must accept all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

(7) Except for state institutional and correctional facilities designated as federal shortage areas, the applicant must:

(a) Serve medicare clients, medicaid clients, low-income clients, uninsured clients, and the population of a federal shortage designation.

(b) Agree to implement a sliding fee discount schedule. The schedule must be:

(i) Available in Spanish (where applicable) and English; and

(ii) Posted conspicuously; and

(iii) Distributed in hard copy on request to individuals making or keeping appointments with that physician.

(8) Applicants must have a signed employment contract with the physician, and guarantee wages for the duration of the contract.

(9) Applicants must cooperate in providing the department with clarifying information, verifying information already provided, or in any investigation of the applicant’s financial status and payer mix.

(10) Applicants must first apply through any organization with federal or interested governmental agency authority which submits waiver requests for Idaho’s underserved rural areas. Documentation which fully explains why this route was not taken for placement is required as part of the application.

(11) The physician’s name and practice location will be made available to the public as a provider who accepts medicare, medicaid and utilizes a sliding fee schedule for the low-income population.

(12) An assurance letter that the health care facility, its principals, and the J-1 or national interest waiver petitioning physician are not under investigation for, under probation for, or under restriction for medicare or medicaid fraud, or other violations of law or licensure restrictions that may indicate that it may not be in the public interest that a waiver be granted, must be provided.

(13) The applicant and its principals must be free of default on any federal or state scholarship or loan repayment program such as the national health service corps or by the state.

History:

[39-6108, added 2004, ch. 128, sec. 1, p. 440; am. 2009, ch. 106, sec. 8, p. 329; am. 2017, ch. 72, sec. 5, p. 174.]