Alabama Rural Medical Service Award

Find out more by scrolling down to the interactive map, community lookup, and PCSA table,
or by contacting armsa@uabmc.edu

What are Alabama Rural Medical Service Awards?

• Alabama Rural Medical Service Awards (ARMSAs) are service payback loans for Alabama licensed primary care physicians (PCPs) and certified family medicine nurse practitioners (NPs) in return for their practicing in ARMSA eligible Alabama communities that have a shortage of PCPs.

• Primary Care Fields are

  • Family Medicine

  • General Internal Medicine

  • General Pediatrics

  • General Medicine-Pediatrics

• The award is $50,000.00 per year for a maximum of three years for primary care physicians and $30,000.00 per year for a maximum of three years for family medicine NPs

• The program is sponsored by the Office of Primary Care and Rural Health, Alabama Department of Public Health.

• A contract with the Alabama Department of Public Health is required.

What are the goals of ARMSA?

• To assist ARMSA rural communities in recruiting PCPs and family medicine NPs to their communities.

• To assist rural hospitals located in ARMSA service areas in recruiting PCPs and family medicine NPs.

• To assist practicing PCPs and family medicine NPs in relocating to an ARMSA community.

• To support graduating PCP residents in locating to an ARMSA primary care underserved rural community.

• To draw licensed PCPs who trained out of state back to practice in rural Alabama.

Who is eligible for ARMSA?

• Fully licensed PCPs who are interested in practicing in an ARMSA service area and have not practiced within three (3) years of October 1, 2023, in an ARMSA eligible area. Eligible areas have a deficit of primary care physicians as shown by the Office for Family Health Education and & Research's most recent Status Report of the Alabama Primary Care Physician Workforce.

• Family Medicine Nurse Practitioners who have at least three years' experience practicing as a Family Medicine Nurse Practitioner and are interested in practicing in an ARMSA service area. The applicant may not have practiced within three (3) years of October 1, 2023, in an ARMSA eligible area. Eligible areas have a deficit of primary care physicians as shown by the Office for Family Health Education and & Research's most recent Status Report of the Alabama Primary Care Physician Workforce.

What are the service requirements?

• A PCP must practice full-time ambulatory primary care medicine in an ARMSA-eligible rural primary care service area.

• An NP must maintain a collaborative practice agreement with a PCP who is practicing at a location within the same ARMSA-eligible service area.

• A contract with the Alabama Department of Public Health is required.

How are loans repaid?

• ARMSA is repaid through a recipient's contractual service obligation of full-time practice per year, not to exceed three years total, in an ARMSA-eligible Alabama rural primary care service area that has a shortage of PCPs.

• The contract is one-year at a time.

Where did ARMSA come from?

• ARMSA was developed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's Policy Office.

• It was approved by a legislative act which set aside $2,000,000 annually to attract PCPs and NPs to eligible rural communities.

• It is the only state-funded program that is directed at already licensed PCPs and experienced family medicine NPs.

How are ARMSA-eligible practice areas determined?

• A Statewide network of Rational Primary Care Service Areas (PCSAs) was developed for Alabama based the location of clusters of PCPs and the population within 30 minutes drive time of the clusters of PCPs.

• A needs assessment of each RSA was determined using the availability of PCPs to the population demand.

• Rural communities with a deficit of PCPs are evaluated for ARMSA-eligibility.

Alabama's Primary Care Service Areas:

• Alabama has 78 Primary Care Service Areas with identified population centers.

• These population centers are spatially located such that 96% of Alabama's residents have 30 minute or less travel time access to PCPs.

• Each PCSA has a designated population center where 97.8% of Alabama’s PCP practices are located.

• Each population center historically has had the ability to recruit PCPs.

• Alabama's PCSAs are created based on Federal Regulations.

How are rural communities identified?

ARMSA uses the U.S. Census Bureau urban-centric definition of rural:

“A community with a population of less than 50,000 not within a U.S. Census Bureau-designated Urbanized Area. A PCSA is defined as rural or urban based on the location of its population center.”