The FRAME Program (2026): How Florida Pays Physicians Up to $150,000 in Loan Repayment — The Complete Guide

1. You must be a primary care physician or psychiatrist — actively practicing as one. The program rule defines the qualifying specialties as obstetrics, gynecology, general and family practice, general internal medicine, geriatrics, general pediatrics, mental health, and psychiatry. The application itself is blunt about the trap: "If you are not actively practicing primary care, you are not eligible for this program." An internal medicine graduate now practicing as a subspecialist, or an FM-trained physician doing pure aesthetics, does not qualify on training pedigree alone — the practice, not the residency certificate, is what's tested. The setting matters too: the rule excludes inpatient work at hospitals that aren't rural hospitals, and emergency rooms, and telehealth can count for no more than half of your weekly direct patient care hours.

2. A clear, active Florida license — held throughout the entire cycle, from application through award payment. A license under discipline or in application status breaks eligibility.

3. Practice in a qualifying shortage area. Florida has 261 HRSA-designated primary care HPSAs — 11 covering entire counties, the remaining 250 covering high-needs geographic zones, low-income population areas, federally qualified health centers, and rural health clinics — with every county represented in whole or part. Psychiatrists applying through the mental health track need a mental health HPSA. Practically: FQHC and rural health clinic employment is the cleanest qualification path, but plenty of ordinary employed positions inside metro-area HPSA zones qualify too. Verify your practice address against the HRSA shortage area finder before assuming either way.

4. Accept Medicaid, if your practice is eligible to. Per the program's statutory terms, continued payments are contingent on accepting Medicaid reimbursement where eligible — consistent with the program's purpose and worth confirming your employer's payer mix supports before applying.

5. The 25 volunteer hours — every award year. Here is the requirement that appears in the statute and the Administrative Code and essentially nowhere in secondhand coverage: payments depend on 25 hours of volunteer primary care or mental health service each year, in a free clinic or another state volunteer program. You document completed hours on a Volunteer Hours Verification Form and sign a Volunteer Service Obligation Form, which commits you to finish the 25 hours between July 1 and June 30 after the application cycle (hours completed after January 1 of the award-cycle year can count). Missing them can cost you the next cycle and trigger the penalties described below. Plan this before the window opens rather than discovering it inside the portal in April.

The hard exclusivity rule first: the application requires you to attest that you are not receiving, have not applied for, and don't intend to apply for student loan repayment from any other State of Florida agency, and anyone who received another Florida-funded award since July 1 of the prior year is ineligible — explicitly including the Florida Department of Education's program. FRAME is one-per-customer at the state level. (Federal programs are a separate question; ask before holding FRAME and an NHSC award for the same service period.)

The PSLF interaction deserves genuine care. FRAME payments go to your lender and reduce principal. If you are simultaneously on an income-driven plan pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness — plausible, since FQHC and nonprofit-clinic jobs that qualify for FRAME frequently qualify for PSLF too — a large principal reduction shrinks the balance that would eventually be forgiven tax-free. For a physician early in the PSLF timeline with a modest balance, FRAME may simply be better money sooner. For a physician 70 payments in with $350,000 outstanding, taking FRAME awards could partially duplicate forgiveness that was already coming — the same modeling exercise our student loan forgiveness guide walks through, and one worth an hour with a loan specialist before your first application, not after your second award. The clean cases: physicians who refinanced privately (PSLF is already off the table — FRAME is pure upside against private loans if the loans qualify), and physicians at for-profit employers in HPSA zones (no PSLF path anyway).

And the timing note for trainees: FRAME is a practicing-clinician program, not a medical-school commitment program like Iowa's CRISP track — which means Florida residents finishing training can build it into job selection now: a final-year FM or psychiatry resident comparing offers should be checking prospective practice addresses against the HPSA map as part of the contract evaluation process, because the difference between two otherwise-similar offers can be a $150,000 state benefit one address qualifies for and the other doesn't.