The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has opened a new enrollment window on October 26, 2026 for a nationwide effort called Nurses for Nursing Homes. The initiative promises to cover a substantial portion of nursing school debt in exchange for a three-year service contract at qualifying long-term care facilities.
Participants can receive up to $40,000 in direct student-loan repayment and an additional $10,000 as a performance stipend, for a total potential benefit of $50,000. Payments are distributed quarterly and are subject to ordinary income tax.
Funding structure and program scale
CMS is allocating $100 million of its budget, while state governments have pledged at least $175 million, bringing the total pool to $275 million. The money originates from civil monetary penalties imposed on nursing homes for regulatory violations, meaning the program does not draw on new congressional appropriations.
With this financing, the program is designed to support more than 4,000 registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical or vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs). All 50 states and the District of Columbia are participating, and the eligibility map includes every rural nursing home as well as facilities located in areas identified by CMS as having the lowest RN-to-resident ratios.
Who can qualify and what are the service commitments?
To be considered, nurses must hold an active RN, LPN, or LVN license at the start of employment. They must average at least 30 hours of work per week, calculated over each calendar quarter, at a facility that is Medicare-, Medicaid-, or dual-certified. The commitment lasts three years, mirroring other service-based forgiveness programs for nurses.
Eligible loans encompass Federal Direct, Stafford, Perkins, and consolidation loans, as well as private nursing-school loans used for nursing education. Even nurses who graduated within the last two years but carry no qualifying debt can receive the $10,000 stipend, a feature that many state-run repayment programs lack.
Applicants must generally avoid having worked in a nursing home or a state nursing-home inspection agency within the 60 days preceding the creation of an application account. An exception applies during the first 90-day enrollment period (October 26, 2026 – January 24, 2027) for nurses hired between July 28 and October 25, 2026.
Financial mechanics, tax impact, and interaction with other programs
The $50,000 benefit is treated as taxable income. If spread evenly over 12 quarters, a nurse would receive roughly $4,167 per quarter, or $16,667 annually. At a 22% federal tax rate, this translates to about $3,667 in federal tax each year, or roughly $11,000 over the three-year period.
Because the payments raise adjusted gross income, borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment plans such as the Repayment Assistance Plan may see higher monthly obligations after recertification. It is advisable to set aside a portion of each disbursement for the anticipated tax bill.
While the program shares similarities with the HRSA Nurse Corps scholarship and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) pathway, CMS has not clarified whether participants can stack benefits. Nurses employed by nonprofit or government-run nursing homes should verify eligibility for both programs before committing.
The enrollment window closes on January 24, 2027. Prospective participants can verify facility eligibility and track application status on the official enrollment site. Those outside the designated areas may explore state-level loan repayment options that target nursing professionals.
