As medical school students, we are taught that when something is “viral,” it means that there is an infective agent in a patient. But in modern times, the word also means information that circulated widely and rapidly on the internet.
That’s what happened to me recently. An off the cuff response on Twitter has been liked over 135,000 times and seen over 5 million times on the platform. So, I wanted to share it with all of you, my colleagues, in case it is information that is helpful to you.
I got my student loans forgiven! And you might be able to get yours paid as well because of some very recent changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, or PSLF. This program, as most of you probably know, will pay off your federal education loans if you work at a non-profit or government organization for ten years and make monthly payments during that time if your loan is eligible for the program. And it is available to anyone who meets the criteria, not just physicians.
It is complicated trying to keep up with both eligibility and relief. For example, I applied for relief in 2019 and was turned down due to my payments not being eligible. But in October, changes were made to the program that have temporarily allowed more people to be eligible for relief. Under the new rules, I applied a second time late last year believing that I would once again be turned down because of the complexity of the program, but I was granted relief.
I wanted to let my colleagues know that they should check on their eligibility as well because these changes expire in October of this year (or until the program runs out of money). So I would highly recommend that you look into the changes made last year and see if you are now eligible for relief.
Lee Dossett, MD is a hospitalist physician in Lexington, Ky. He is also a graduate of the KMA’s Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute (KPLI) and President-Elect of the Lexington Medical Society.
A news story in USA Today about the changes can be found at https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/01/21/how-to-get-student-loan-forgiveness-federal-public-service-program/6609660001/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories
A summary of the changes can also be found at https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/pslf-limited-waiver
