[Note: The DRA's waiver program is undergoing final review at the current time and applications are not yet being accepted. When the program official debuts you will find application materials on the DRA web site at www.dra.gov. For background on how this program came about, see the Openers article at the beginning of this newsletter]

The Delta Regional Authority is a new government agency headquartered in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It is a federal-state partnership serving a 240-country/parish area in an eight state region comprising parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois. A coverage map can be found at http://www.dra.gov/dra_coverage_map.html.

The agency's mission is to "remedy severe and economic distress by stimulating economic development and fostering partnerships that will have a positive impact on the region's economy."

The DRA also states that it is committed to helping all residents of the Delta region to have access to quality, affordable healthcare as a core part of the region's economic development. It is with this in mind that the DRA will sponsor J-1 physicians.

The DRA program, like other federal programs, is available to primary care physicians. Primary medical care includes general or family practice, general internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and psychiatry.

Physicians seeking a waiver must commit to providing primary care for not less than forty hours per week in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (MHPSA), Medically Underserved Area (MUA), or Medically Underserved Population (MUP) in a DRA county. The physician must also sign a contract committing him or her to providing three years  or more of service. The contract must also not contain a non-compete clause.

Employers seeking to hire physicians under the program must show that they have been making a good faith attempt to recruit an American doctor in the same salary range without success.

The DRA is committed to ensuring that impoverished people in the region benefit from the program so it requires that physicians agree to provide health services to individuals without discriminating against them because (a) they were unable to pay for those services or (b) payment for those services will be available under Medicare or Medicaid.