HB 494

Abstract

Amends the Family Practice Residency Act. Adds a person licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches under the Medical Practice Act of 1987 with a specialty in Psychiatry to the definition of "primary care physician". Provides that any monetary penalties imposed after December 31, 1999 and before the effective date of the amendatory Act upon a scholarship recipient who has been found by the Department of Public Health to have failed to fulfill his or her obligation under the Act, but who has been practicing as a psychiatrist within a designated shortage area during that time, must be declared null and void by the Department, and any payments made to the Department by the scholarship recipient must be returned to that scholarship recipient within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the Department. Effective immediately.