Nurse Corps 2017-2018 Breach of Contract

[NamasteNurse8, BSN, RN]

Hello Colleagues,

I was awarded a scholarship from Nurse Corps for the 2017-2018 cycle, graduated on time and passed the NCLEX August 2018. The state where I applied denied my application due to mistakes in my youth.  As a result, Nurse Corps claims I Breached the Contract on the basis that I “failed to begin [the] service obligation within the 9 month timeframe.” I’m unable to repay the amount they converted into a loan at $800/month. The loan has since gone into default and now a collections agency is threatening to garnish my wages. Has anyone gone through the same process but contested the breach with HRSA? After carefully reviewing the 2017-2018 program guidelines and signed contract, the program could have offered a suspension based on the fact that “compliance by the applicant with the obligation is impossible”.

 

Simply seeing if any former scholars faced a similar situation, contested the breach through HRSA or via legal means. I’m in New York state. 
 

Many thanks.

[Cleo881]

Hey - 

Question about how this worked, if you don't mind talking about it. I can see this is an older post, so I hope things have worked okay out. 

 

Did they count "breach" as the start of your service obligation? 

Was there a set time to pay back the money in? Could you pay faster/slower depending on what you needed? Did breaching cause any license issues down the line? There's some scary language in there! 

[NamasteNurse8, BSN, RN]

Cleo881 said:

Hey - 

Question about how this worked, if you don't mind talking about it. I can see this is an older post, so I hope things have worked okay out. 

 

Did they count "breach" as the start of your service obligation? 

Was there a set time to pay back the money in? Could you pay faster/slower depending on what you needed? Did breaching cause any license issues down the line? There's some scary language in there! 

Hi, I was able to get my license and begin fulfilling my service obligation March 2024 to prevent paying back $90K but I am in forbearance.

 

Hope this is helpful.

[Cleo881]

Yeah, it is! Congrats on getting it sorted, although I can only imagine how stressful it was. 

I'm in a situation where I'm considering breaching the contract, but all I can find is the program guidance and my contract which just says, to my read, "Add up everything we paid you/your school, put it at a high interest rate, then pay us back in three years minimum." but I can't tell if there are even more strings attached? What if I could pay a big chunk of it off at once? You mentioned they put you on a payment plan? 

Thank you so much for responding. I can find some info for NHSC, but there's so little out there about nurse corps breach!