HELP Act Information and Resources
Rep. John Lewis introduced the H.R. 5806, HIV Epidemic Loan-Repayment Program (HELP) Act with Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Frederica Wilson as original co-sponsors. The legislation helps address the urgent need to ensure a robust and well-qualified infectious diseases and HIV physician and clinical workforce that is even greater due to the pandemic.
Please take two minutes to ask your House Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 5806, the HIV Epidemic Loan-Repayment Program (HELP) Act.
- Write a Letter
- Tweet your lawmaker
- Talking Points
-
The HELP Act would establish a loan repayment program offering up to $250,000 over five years to physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and dentists who provide HIV treatment in areas with Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) or at Ryan White-funded clinical sites.
- To learn more about requirements, read the full bill text here
- IDSA & HIVMA News Statement.
- HELP Act Organizational Endorsement Letter
- The Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists Endorsement letter.
- Find Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) in your state
- Find Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Medical Providers in your state
- Ryan White HIV/AIDS State Profiles
- HIV/AIDS State Health Facts
- AIDSVu interactive online mapping tool
With a new commitment to dramatically increase engagement and re-engagement of people with HIV in care through the federal EHE initiative, the HELP Act is urgently needed to ensure there are clinicians to care for an influx of patients entering HIV care.
- Where Is the ID in COVID-19? Annals of Internal Medicine (2020)
- Urban-Rural Disparities in the US South (2020)
- The HIV Workforce in Crisis: An Urgent Need to Build the Foundation Required to End the Epidemic (2020)
- Results from the Survey of Infectious Disease Fellows Completing Training in 2016: The George Washington University Health Workforce Institute and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, (2017)
- Charting the Future of Infectious Disease: Anticipating and Addressing the Supply and Demand Mismatch (2017)
- Future Capacity of the HIV Care Provider Workforce (2016)
- HIV Clinician Workforce Study (2013)