(a) Within 60 days of the Board's notification of acceptance into the program, the participating dentist shall sign a written agreement with the Board committing to all terms of the program and acknowledging the amount to be received under the program and that repayment will be made in accordance with Section 1975 of the code.
(b) Loan repayment under the program shall be made to the participating dentist and in accordance with Section 1975 of the code. If a dentist participating in the program is awarded a loan repayment of less than $105,000, 24 percent of the total loan repayment amount will be made after completing one year of service under the program, 33 percent made after completing two consecutive years of service under the program, and 43 percent after completing three consecutive years of service under the program.
(c) Absence from the practice cannot exceed 7 weeks, paid or unpaid, in a calendar year, except as otherwise required in order to comply with applicable state and federal law.
(d) If the participating dentist ceases full-time practice, but returns to qualifying full-time practice within 90 days after reduction or termination of employment, loan repayment shall be proportionately reduced by the time spent away from qualifying practice during that contract year. The participating dentist shall notify the Board pursuant to section
1042.5(a). Whenever the Board has evidence of such a reduction or termination, the Board shall notify the participating dentist in writing of any proportionate reduction of repayment of funds received under the program. The dentist may petition the Board for modification of the reduction of repayment. The petition shall be in writing, accompanied by those documents necessary to establish the basis for the petition, and shall be filed with the Board not later than 90 days after the date of the notification of reduction by the Board. A petition shall be accepted for filing only if it is based on one or more of the following grounds:
(1) The dentist was terminated without cause.
(2) The dentist ceased or reduced full-time employment due to factors beyond the dentist's control.
(3) Both the practice setting and the dentist agreed to the termination of the dentist's employment.
The petition shall be accompanied by a certification under penalty of perjury, signed and dated by the practice setting's administrative officer, whose name is printed below his/her signature, that the participating dentist has returned to full-time employment or, where the participating dentist has found subsequent employment, that the facility has entered into an agreement with the applicant for a minimum of three years; that the applicant can speak a Medi-Cal threshold language effectively in order to provide service; that it will pay the applicant a prevailing wage and not offset any loan repayments by the program against the applicant's salary; and that it is a "practice setting" as defined in Section 1971(f) of the code. The participating dentist will be required to sign a new or amended agreement required by section 1042.4(a).
(e) The participating dentist must maintain a valid, active, current, and unrestricted license for the duration of the program. Whenever the Board has evidence that the participating dentist's license is invalid, inactive, not current, or restricted, the Board may, in its discretion, terminate the participating dentist from the program, and/or notify the participating dentist in writing of any amounts to be repaid to the Board, and the date by which the dentist shall make such repayment. The dentist may petition the Board for modification of the termination or reduction of repayment. The petition shall be in writing, accompanied by those documents necessary to establish the basis for the petition, and shall be filed with the Board not later than 90 days after the date of the notification of termination or reduction by the Board. A petition shall be accepted for filing only if it is based on one or more of the following grounds:
(1) The act(s) leading to the participating dentist's license becoming invalid, inactive, not current, or restricted was inadvertent.
(2) The act(s) leading to the participating dentist's license becoming invalid, inactive, not current, or restricted were unrelated to the practice of dentistry.
(3) Any restrictions on the license of the dentist do not interfere with the safe practice of dentistry.
The petition shall be accompanied by a certification under penalty of perjury, signed and dated by the practice setting's administrative officer, whose name is printed below his/her signature, that the participating dentist is still engaged in or has returned to full-time employment and that any restrictions on the license of the dentist do not interfere with the safe practice of dentistry. The Board shall review petitions and supporting documents. It shall notify the petitioning dentist in writing of its decision within 60 days after receipt of the petition.
