71-5653.

Terms, defined.

For purposes of the Rural Health Systems and Professional Incentive Act:

(1) Approved medical specialty means family practice, general practice, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, general surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry;

(2) Approved dental specialty means general practice, pediatric dentistry, and oral surgery;

(3) Approved mental health practice program means an approved educational program consisting of a master's or doctorate degree with the focus being primarily therapeutic mental health and meeting the educational requirements for licensure in mental health practice or psychology by the department;

(4) Commission means the Nebraska Rural Health Advisory Commission;

(5) Department means the Division of Public Health of the Department of Health and Human Services;

(6) Doctorate-level mental health student means a graduate student enrolled in or accepted for enrollment in an approved mental health practice program leading to a doctorate degree and meeting the educational requirements for licensure in psychology by the department;

(7) Full-time practice means a minimum of forty hours per week;

(8) Health care means both somatic and mental health care services;

(9) Master's level mental health student means a graduate student enrolled in or accepted for enrollment in an approved mental health practice program leading to a master's degree and meeting the educational requirements for licensure in mental health practice by the department;

(10) Office means the Office of Rural Health;

(11) Part-time practice means less than full-time practice but at least twenty hours per week;

(12) Qualified educational debts means government and commercial student-loan loans obtained by students for postsecondary education tuition, other educational expenses, and reasonable living expenses, as determined by the department, but does not include loans received under the act; and

(13) Rural means located within any county in Nebraska having a population of less than fifteen thousand inhabitants and not included within a metropolitan statistical area as defined by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.