Virginia Law

With respect to default, the contract shall:

1. Provide that a recipient who fails to fulfill his obligation to practice primary care medicine as provided for in this chapter shall be deemed to be in default and shall forfeit all monetary scholarship payments made to him, and shall make restitution of those funds to the Commonwealth of Virginia as provided for in subdivisions 2 through 6 of this section.

2. Provide that if the recipient defaults while still in medical school or residency, by voluntarily notifying the commissioner in writing that he will not practice primary care in a Virginia medically underserved area as required by his contract, by voluntarily not proceeding to the next year of medical education or residency, or by withdrawing from medical school or residency, he shall make restitution to the Commonwealth of Virginia by repayment of all monetary scholarship awards plus interest on the amount of the restitution.

3. Provide that the recipient who defaults by failing to maintain satisfactory academic progress, or by reason of his dismissal from medical school for any reason, shall make restitution to the Commonwealth of Virginia by repayment of all monetary scholarship awards plus interest on the amount of such restitution to the Commonwealth.

4. Provide that if the recipient is in default due to death or permanent disability so as not to be able to engage in primary care practice, the recipient or his personal representative shall make restitution to the Commonwealth by repayment of all monetary scholarship awards plus interest on the amount of restitution. Partial fulfillment of the recipient's contractual obligation by the practice of medicine as provided for in this contract prior to death or permanent disability shall reduce the amount of restitution plus interest due by a proportionate amount of money, such proportion being determined as the ratio of the number of whole months that a recipient has practiced primary care medicine in an approved location to the total number of months of the contractual obligation the recipient has incurred.

5. Provide that individual cases of extraordinary hardship may be considered by the commissioner for forgiveness or partial forgiveness of payment or service.

6. Provide that any recipient of a scholarship, who defaults by evasion or refusal to fulfill the obligation to practice primary care medicine in a medically underserved area or designated state facility for a period of years equal to the number of annual scholarships received at any time following completion of medical school and residency training, shall make restitution by repaying all monetary scholarship awards, plus penalty, plus interest on such restitution to the Commonwealth of Virginia. A recipient will be considered to be in such default on the date:

a. The commissioner is notified in writing by the recipient that he does not intend to fulfill his contractual obligation;

b. The recipient has not accepted a placement and commenced his period of obligated practice as provided for in subdivision 2 of this section; or

c. The recipient absents himself without the consent of the commissioner from the place of medical practice which the commissioner has approved for fulfillment of his contractual obligation.