(A) The deans of the Ohio state university college of dentistry and case western reserve university school of dental medicine shall jointly develop a proposal for the creation of a primary care dental student component of the choose Ohio first scholarship program operated under section 3333.61 of the Revised Code. The purpose of the component is to annually award scholarships to dental students who meet the requirements of division (D) of this section.

(B) The deans shall consider including in the proposal provisions that do the following:

(1) Establish a scholarship fund of sufficient size to permit annually not more than eight dental students to receive scholarships;

(2) Specify that a scholarship may be provided to a dental student for not more than four years.

(C) The deans shall submit the proposal to the chancellor of higher education not later than January 1, 2020, for the chancellor's review. The chancellor shall decide whether to implement the component as part of the program.

(D) If the component is implemented, a dental student must meet both of the following requirements to be eligible for a scholarship:

(1) Commit to practice dentistry, for not less than four years, in a dental health resource shortage area that has been designated under section 3702.87 of the Revised Code;

(2) Accept medicaid recipients as patients, without restriction and, as compared to other patients, in a proportion that is specified in the scholarship.

Added by 132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 259, §1, eff. 3/20/2019.