(a) The Commissioner of Public Health shall establish, within available resources, a program to provide three-year grants to community-based providers of primary care services in order to expand access to health care for the uninsured. The grants may be awarded to community-based providers of primary care for (1) funding for direct services, (2) recruitment and retention of primary care clinicians and registered nurses through subsidizing of salaries or through a loan repayment program, and (3) capital expenditures. The community-based providers of primary care under the direct service program shall provide, or arrange access to, primary and preventive services, behavioral health services, referrals to specialty services, including rehabilitative and mental health services, inpatient care, prescription drugs, basic diagnostic laboratory services, health education and outreach to alert people to the availability of services. Primary care clinicians and registered nurses participating in the state loan repayment program or receiving subsidies shall provide services to the uninsured based on a sliding fee schedule, provide free care if necessary, accept Medicare assignment and participate as Medicaid providers, or provide nursing services in school-based health centers and expanded school health sites, as such terms are defined in § 19a-6r. The commissioner may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, to establish eligibility criteria, services to be provided by participants, the sliding fee schedule, reporting requirements and the loan repayment program. For the purposes of this section, “primary care clinicians” includes family practice physicians, general practice osteopaths, obstetricians and gynecologists, internal medicine physicians, pediatricians, dentists, certified nurse midwives, advanced practice registered nurses, physician assistants, dental hygienists, psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors.

(b) Funds appropriated for the state loan repayment program shall not lapse until fifteen months following the end of the fiscal year for which such funds were appropriated. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, the department shall expend at least one million six hundred thousand dollars of the funds appropriated for the state loan repayment program for repayments for physicians. Any remaining funds may be expended for other health care providers. For purposes of this section, “physician” means any physician licensed pursuant to chapter 370 who (1) graduated from a medical school in the state or completed his or her medical residency program at a hospital licensed under chapter 368v, and (2) is employed as a physician in the state.