The FRAME Program (2026): How Florida Pays Physicians Up to $150,000 in Loan Repayment — The Complete Guide
Florida runs one of the largest state physician loan repayment programs in the country, and most Florida physicians have never heard its name. The complete 2026 guide to FRAME.
Florida runs one of the largest state physician loan repayment programs in the country, and most Florida physicians have never heard its name. The Florida Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education program — FRAME — pays up to 25 percent of your student loan principal per year, to a lifetime maximum of $150,000 over four years of participation, paid directly to your lender, for primary care physicians and psychiatrists practicing in federally designated shortage areas. Here is the stat that should change how you read that sentence: every single county in Florida — all 67 — contains at least part of a qualifying Health Professional Shortage Area, including high-needs zones inside major metros. This is not a program that requires moving to a town of 900 people. And the 2026 application window is defined and short: March 1 through April 30 for the primary care and mental health tracks. This is the complete guide — award math, eligibility, the volunteer-hours requirement nobody mentions, and how FRAME interacts with PSLF.
One correction worth making explicitly, because the outdated number is all over the internet: older coverage — including physician society announcements from prior cycles — describes FRAME as "up to $20,000 per year." That reflects the program's earlier structure. Following Florida's major health workforce expansion, the current published limits for physicians are 25 percent of loan principal annually, $150,000 maximum across all years, four years of eligibility — confirmed by the Florida Department of Health's current program materials and the program's most recent annual report to the Legislature. If you dismissed FRAME years ago as a modest $20K program, it is worth a second look at seven and a half times the lifetime value.
This is the third entry in our state physician loan repayment series, alongside Iowa's five-program landscape — and structurally, FRAME is the cleaner story: one program, one portal, one window, real money.
FRAME at a Glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Annual award (physicians) | Up to 25% of your outstanding loan principal |
| Lifetime maximum | $150,000 |
| Years of eligibility | 4 (participation years need not be consecutive) |
| 2026 application window | March 1 – April 30 (FRAME pc and FRAME mh tracks) |
| Who qualifies | Primary care physicians (MD/DO) — family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN — and psychiatrists |
| Where you must practice | A Florida HPSA or department-designated underserved area — parts of every Florida county qualify |
| How it's paid | Directly to your lender(s) |
| Administered by | Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance, via the FRAMEworks portal |
| Program scale | 1,298 loan repayment awards in 2025, up from 1,157 in 2024 — growing, not shrinking |
| The requirement nobody mentions | 25 hours of volunteer service (documented, or formally acknowledged as an obligation) |
Sources: Florida DOH FRAME program page; 2025 FRAME Annual Report; Florida Administrative Code Rule 64W-4.
The Award Math: What 25% of Principal Actually Means for You
FRAME's formula — 25 percent of principal per year — makes the award scale with your debt, which produces meaningfully different outcomes across typical physician debt loads. Three worked profiles:
Family physician with $180,000 in loan principal. Annual award potential: up to $45,000. At that rate, four participation years could retire $150,000 of the balance (hitting the lifetime cap) — the overwhelming majority of the debt, paid by the state directly to the lender while you earn a full attending salary. Set against the median family medicine income, this functions as a roughly 15 percent tax-free raise for four years.
Internist or pediatrician with $300,000 in principal. Annual potential: up to $75,000 — meaning the $150,000 lifetime cap could theoretically be reached in as few as two participation years, cutting the balance in half. (Award amounts in practice depend on annual appropriations and the prioritization rules discussed below — the cap defines the ceiling, not a guarantee.)
Psychiatrist with $250,000 in principal. Same math via the FRAME mh track: up to $62,500 per year against the $150,000 lifetime max. For psychiatrists — a specialty where cash-pay practice models and employed positions alike leave the debt question wide open — FRAME plus Florida's zero state income tax is a genuinely strong combination, one reason the after-tax geography math already favors Florida before the program is even counted.
The non-consecutive years feature deserves a highlight, because it's rare among state programs: your four participation years don't have to run in a row. A physician who takes an award for two years, changes jobs to a non-qualifying location, and later returns to HPSA practice can resume participation — flexibility that programs with rigid continuous-service obligations (including many of the Iowa programs) don't offer.
Eligibility: The Five Requirements
1. You must be a primary care physician or psychiatrist — actively practicing as one. Qualifying specialties are the primary care core (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN) plus psychiatry through the mental health track. The application itself is blunt about the trap: "If you are not actively practicing primary care, you are not eligible for this program, even if you did a residency in one of these categories." An internal medicine graduate now practicing as a hospitalist-turned-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.
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. 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. Here is the requirement that appears in the Administrative Code and essentially nowhere in secondhand coverage: applicants document 25 hours of volunteer service via per-activity, per-day verification forms — or, if not yet completed at application, sign a formal Volunteer Service Obligation Acknowledgment committing to complete them. Free clinic shifts, health fairs, and similar service count; plan this before the window opens rather than discovering it inside the portal in April.
How to Apply: The FRAMEworks Portal and the Paper Trail
The 2026 windows: FRAME pc and FRAME mh — March 1 through April 30; FRAME dental — April 1 through May 31. Applications run exclusively through the state's FRAMEworks portal, and completed applications are reviewed and prioritized under Rules 64W-4 and 64W-6 of the Florida Administrative Code. The document stack, per the current rule:
- The FRAME Application itself, completed in the portal
- An Employment Verification Form for each employer — including yourself, if self-employed or in a partnership — with signatures in ink (a genuinely anachronistic requirement that catches procrastinators: this form requires a physical signature loop with your employer's HR, so start it in February, not April 29)
- A Loan Certification Form for each qualified loan, completed with your servicer (PDF upload; ink or qualifying e-signature)
- Volunteer Hours Verification Forms (or the Obligation Acknowledgment)
Award selections follow the window's close, and payments go directly to lenders — you never touch the money, which also keeps the accounting clean.
One strategic note on the growing-program data: awards rose from 1,157 to 1,298 year-over-year, MDs and DOs are the largest applicant and awardee group, and the program reports to the Legislature annually — the profile of a funded, politically supported program, not a token line item. Programs with this trajectory tend to be worth applying to even in competitive cycles, because prioritization favors complete, early, well-documented applications — which is an execution game you control.
The Stacking Rules: FRAME + PSLF, and What You Can't Combine
The hard exclusivity rule first: the application requires you to attest that you have not received, applied for, or intend to apply for loan repayment from any other State of Florida agency since July 1 of the prior year — explicitly including the Florida Department of Education's program. FRAME is one-per-customer at the state level. (Federal programs are a separate question — but note that NHSC participants generally can't double-cover the same service period with a state award either; sequence rather than stack, as covered in our Iowa guide's coordination section.)
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 student commitment program like Iowa's Rural Iowa Primary Care LRP — 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the FRAME program pay physicians?
Up to 25 percent of your outstanding student loan principal per year, capped at a lifetime maximum of $150,000 across four years of participation, paid directly to your lender. Older coverage citing "$20,000 per year" reflects the program's pre-expansion structure and is outdated. Actual annual awards depend on your principal balance, annual program funding, and application prioritization — a physician with $300,000 in principal has annual award potential of up to $75,000 against the $150,000 lifetime ceiling.
Who is eligible for FRAME?
Physicians (MD or DO) actively practicing primary care — family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or OB/GYN — or psychiatry, holding a clear and active Florida license throughout the cycle, practicing in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area or department-designated underserved area, accepting Medicaid where eligible, and documenting 25 hours of volunteer service. Residency training in a qualifying specialty is not sufficient — current active practice in that specialty is required. The program also covers APRNs, PAs, dentists, nurses, and mental health professionals at different award tiers.
When is the FRAME application window for 2026?
March 1 through April 30, 2026 for the primary care (FRAME pc) and mental health (FRAME mh) tracks; April 1 through May 31 for FRAME dental. Applications run through the state's FRAMEworks portal, and the required employment verification forms need ink signatures from each employer — start gathering documents well before the window closes.
Do I have to work in a rural area to qualify?
No — and this is the most common misconception. Florida has 261 primary care HPSAs, and every one of Florida's 67 counties contains at least part of one, including high-needs zones, low-income population areas, FQHCs, and rural health clinics inside major metropolitan areas. Verify your specific practice address against HRSA's shortage area tool; many urban and suburban positions qualify.
Can I combine FRAME with PSLF or other loan repayment programs?
Not with other State of Florida programs — the application requires attesting you haven't received or applied for any other Florida agency's loan repayment since July 1 of the prior year. FRAME can coexist with a PSLF trajectory, but the interaction needs modeling: FRAME reduces principal, which shrinks the balance PSLF would eventually forgive tax-free, so a physician deep into the PSLF payment count may capture less combined value than expected. Physicians with privately refinanced loans or non-PSLF-qualifying employers face no such conflict.
Is there a service commitment or clawback?
FRAME pays annually based on verified qualifying practice during each participation year — continued payments are contingent on continued qualifying practice, and participation is capped at four years (non-consecutive years permitted). This year-by-year structure means a physician who leaves qualifying practice simply stops receiving awards, a materially gentler design than multi-year obligation programs with repayment clawbacks. Confirm current-year terms in the portal, as program rules are set by administrative code and can be amended.
Editorial Credibility
Joshua Dunigan, DO | Family Medicine Physician & Founder
I founded MedMoneyGuide to provide physicians with unbiased, specialty-specific financial guidance. My goal is to add transparency and credibility to your financial journey.
If you reference this guide — in a residency program's career resources, a Florida physician community, or a publication — please cite and link it. Florida physicians who've been through a FRAME cycle: your application-experience notes make this guide better — editorial@medmoneyguide.com.
The state loan repayment series: Iowa's Physician Loan Repayment Programs · Florida FRAME (you are here) · CalHealthCares (coming next)
Related reading: PSLF vs. Refinancing: The 2026 Math · The Complete Physician Student Loan Forgiveness Guide · Physician Salary by State · Family Medicine Salary (2026) · Psychiatry Salary (2026) · Physician Contract Negotiation
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. FRAME program award limits, eligibility rules, application windows, and documentation requirements are established by Florida statute and Administrative Code (Rules 64W-4 and 64W-6), are subject to annual appropriations, and change over time — figures reflect the Florida Department of Health's published program materials and the most recent FRAME Annual Report as of mid-2026. Award amounts are maximums, not guarantees, and depend on funding and application prioritization. Always confirm current-cycle rules directly through the Florida Department of Health's FRAME program page and FRAMEworks portal before making practice, employment, or loan strategy decisions, and consult a student loan specialist regarding PSLF interaction specific to your situation. MedMoneyGuide earns commissions from some financial product providers featured on this site. This does not influence our editorial content.