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Bill to expand Nevada HEAL loan‑repayment would add MFTs, addiction counselors and allied health professions
Summary
Assemblymember Reuben De Silva presented AB269 to expand the Nevada HEAL student‑loan repayment program to include marriage and family therapists and several other behavioral‑health and allied professions. The treasurer's office proposed a friendly amendment to add additional provider types and to allow providers adjacent to low‑income census tr
Assemblymember Reuben De Silva presented Assembly Bill 269 to the committee, proposing to expand eligibility for the Nevada Health Equity and Loan Assistance (HEAL) program so more behavioral health professionals qualify for state student‑loan repayment. De Silva said the original statutory HEAL program (created by Assembly Bill 45 in 2023) omitted marriage and family therapists and some addiction specialties; AB269 would add those professions to the list of eligible clinicians.
Sarah Hunt, executive director of Be Here Nevada (a designated behavioral health workforce center), told the committee that marriage and family therapists and alcohol, drug and problem‑gambling counselors "provide much needed mental health and substance abuse treatment throughout our state" and that including them in the HEAL program would be "1 more opportunity to encourage their retention in the state." Eric Jimenez of the Treasurer's Office described a proposed friendly amendment to expand the list further to include assistant behavior analysts and behavior analysts, physical therapists, speech‑language pathologists and public‑health professionals employed by county or regional health authorities. Jimenez also noted the program's dedicated funding source: AB45 provided a statutory transfer of $2,500,000 annually from the abandoned/unclaimed property fund to staff the HEAL program.
Treasurer's office staff said the first application round produced substantial demand: "we saw a tremendous response ... had 877 provider applications," Jimenez said. The office also described program design features: a scoring rubric for awards, an annual application window, and a requirement that 15% of annual dollars be allocated to providers in rural counties.
Witnesses from higher education and professional organizations supported the expansion. Michelle Paul of UNLV described workforce shortfalls and cited Nevada Health Workforce Research Center data that the state needs several hundred additional marriage and family therapists and thousands more substance‑use specialists to meet national per‑capita averages. Physical‑therapy representatives urged inclusion of their graduates, citing doctoral training and a national PT workforce shortage. Public‑health representatives and local health districts supported inclusion of public‑health professionals in the Treasurer's Office amendment, saying the change would strengthen governmental public‑health staffing and preparedness.
No opposition was recorded in committee testimony; several jurisdictions and agencies offered neutral or supportive statements. The committee closed the hearing on AB269 with the sponsor and Treasurer's Office indicating the friendly amendment posted on NELIS reflects the stakeholders' discussions and the program's intent. The committee did not take a vote at the hearing.
Ending: The sponsor and Treasurer's Office asked the committee to consider the posted amendment; they asked stakeholders to continue consultation on implementation details and the scoring rubric. The Treasurer's Office said the HEAL program will continue to run annual application cycles and that the first round demonstrated strong statewide demand.
