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System of Record Notice 09-15-0058
 

 

 

 

 

 System name: Faculty Loan Repayment Program, HHS/HRSA/BHPr.

Security classification: None.

System location:

  • Division of Student Assistance, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 8-48, Rockville, Maryland 20857.

Categories of individuals covered by the system: Applicants for and recipients of contracts under the Faculty Loan Repayment Program.

Categories of records in the system: Contain name, Social Security number, school identifier, contract number, birth date, demographic background, educational status, school location, employment status, payback status, and financial information about the individual for whom the record is maintained.

Authority for maintenance of the system: Public Health Service Act, as amended, section 738 (42 U.S.C. 294cc) . This section authorizes the establishment of a program for entering into contract with individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds for repayment of educational loans in exchange for teaching services.

Purpose(s):
  1. To maintain all information relative to the application for awarding a contract to an individual.
  2. To monitor recipient’s continued eligibility.
  3. To monitor recipient’s employment in fulfillment of recipient’s service obligation.
  4. To monitor all repayment actions until the repayment obligation is satisfied.
  5. To compile and generate managerial and statistical reports.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:
  1. Disclosure may be made to a congressional office from the record of an individual, in responses to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of the individual.
  2. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may disclose information from this system of records to the Department of Justice, or to a court or other tribunal, when (a) HHS, or any component thereof; or (b) any HHS employee in his or her official capacity; or (c) any HHS employee in his or her individual capacity where the Department of Justice (or HHS, where it is authorized to do so) has agreed to represent the employee; or (d) the United States or any agency thereof, where HHS determines that the litigation is likely to affect HHS or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and HHS determines that the use of such records by the Department of Justice, the court or other tribunal is relevant and necessary to the litigation and would help in the effective representation of the governmental party, provided, however, that in such care HHS determines that such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.
  3. HRSA may disclose to debt collection agents, other Federal agencies, and other third parties who are authorized to collect or compromise a Federal debt, information necessary to identify a delinquent debtor. Disclosure will be limited to the debtor’s name, address, Social Security number, and other information necessary to identify him/her; the amount, status, and history of the claim, and the agency or program under which the claim arose.
  4. Records may be disclosed to authorized persons employed at educational institutions where the recipient received a loan. The purpose of this disclosure is to assist institutions in identifying defaulted loan recipients (hereafter called debtors) in order to enforce the conditions and terms of such loans.
  5. In the event that system of records maintained by this agency to carry out its functions indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal, or regulatory in nature and whether arising by general statute or particular program statute, or by regulation, rule or order issued pursuant thereto, the relevant records in the system of records may be referred to the appropriate agency, whether Federal, State or local charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting such violation or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute or rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto.
  6. HRSA may disclose from this system of records a debtor’s name, address, Social Security number, and other information necessary to identify him/her; the amount, status, and history of the claim, and the agency or program under which the claim arose, as follows:
    1. To another Federal agency so that agency can effect a salary offset for debts owed by Federal employees; if the claim arose under the Social Security Act, the employee must have agreed in writing to the salary offset;
    2. to another Federal agency so that agency can effect an authorized administrative offset (i.e., withhold money payable to or held on behalf of debtors other than Federal employees);
    3. to the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to request a debtor’s current mailing address to locate him/her for purposes of either collecting or compromising debt, or to have a commercial credit report prepared.
  7. Records may be disclosed to the General Accounting Office and to the Office of Management and Budget for auditing financial obligations to determine compliance with programmatic, statutory, and regulatory provisions.
  8. HRSA may disclose information from this system of records to another Federal agency that has asked the Department to effect an administrative otf set to help collect a debt owed to the United States. Disclosure is limited to the individual’s name, address, Social Security number, and other information necessary to identify the individual; information about the money payable to or held for the individual, and other information concerning the administrative offset.
  9. HRSA will report to the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as taxable income, the written-off amount of a debt owed by an individual to the Federal Government when a debt becomes partly or wholly uncollectible, either because the time period for collection under the statute of limitations has expired, or because the Government agrees with the individual to forgive or compromise the debt.
  10. HRSA may disclose information from this system of record to any third party that may have information about a delinquent debtor’s current address, such as a U.S. post office, a State motor vehicle administration, professional organization, alumni association, etc., for the purpose of obtaining the debtor’s current address. This disclosure will be strictly limited to information necessary to identify the individual without any reference to the reason for the agency’s need for obtaining the address.
  11. The amount of the contract awarded the individual will be reported as taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Disclosures to consumer reporting agencies: Disclosures pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) (12) : Disclosures may be made from this system to consumer reporting agencies as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(f) or the Federal Claims Collection Act of 1966 (31 U.S.C. 3701(a) (3)). The purpose of disclosure is to provide an incentive for debtors to repay delinquent Federal Government debts by making these debts part of their credit records. Disclosure of records will be limited to the individual’s name, Social Security number, and other information necessary to establish the identity of the individual, the amount, status, and history of the claim, and the agency or program under which the claim arose.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:
  • Storage: Records are maintained in file folders, on magnetic tape, microfilm, and/or in disk packs.
  • Retrievability: Retrieval will be by name and/or Social Security number.
  • Safeguards:
    1. Authorized users: Personnel of the Division of Student Assistance and other components of the Health Resources and Services Administration.
    2. Physical safeguards: Magnetic tapes, microfilms, disk packs, computer equipment, and hard copy files are stored in areas where fire and life safety codes are strictly enforced. Twenty-four hour, seven-day security guards perform random checks on the physical security of the data. All documents are protected during lunch hours and nonworking hours in locked file cabinets or locked storage areas.
    3. Procedural and technical safeguards: A password is required to access the terminal, and a software security system controls the release of data to only authorized users. All users of personal information in connection with the performance of their jobs protect information from public view and from unauthorized personnel entering an unsupervised area. Access to records is strictly limited to those staff members trained in accordance with the Privacy Act.
    4. Implementation guidelines: DHHS Chapter 45-13 and supplementary Chapter PHS.hf: 45-13 of the General Administration Manual; and the Department’s Information Systems Security Handbook.

Retention and disposal: Records will be retained for 6 years (1 year on site and 5 years at the National Records Center) after completion of the service obligation or repayment to the Secretary in cases of default. Records on magnetic tape are retained for 5 years and then they are destroyed. Records are disposed of in accordance with the Records Control Schedule of the Health Resources and Services Administration. Contact the System Manager for disposal standard.

System manager(s) and address:
  • Director, Division of Student Assistance, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 8-48, Rockville, Maryland 20857.

Notification procedure: Requests must be made to the System Manager.

Requests in person: A subject individual who appears in person at a specific location seeking access or disclosure of records relating to him/her shall provide his/her name, current address, and at least one piece of tangible identification such as driver’s license, passport, voter registration card, or union card. Identification papers with current photographs are preferred but not required. Additional identification may be requested when there is a request for access to records which contain in apparent discrepancy between information contained in the records and that provided by the individual requesting access to the records. No verification of identity shall be required where the record is one which is required to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Requests by mail: Requests for information and/or access to records received by mail must contain information providing the identity of the writer and a reasonable description of the record desired. Written requests must contain the name and address of the requester, his/her date of birth and at least one piece of information which is also contained in the subject record, and his! her signature for comparison purposes.

Requests by telephone: Since positive identification of the caller cannot be established, telephone requests are not honored.

Record access procedures: Same as notification procedures. Requesters should also reasonably specify the record contents being sought. Individuals may also request an accounting of disclosure that have been made of their records, if any.

Contesting record procedures: Contact the System Manager at the address specified above and reasonably identify the record, specify the information being contested, and state the corrective action and the reason(s) for requesting the correction, along with supporting justification to show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.

Record source categories: Individual contract recipients, recipient’s school.

Systems exempted from certain provisions of the act: None.