(a) If the Graduate Medical Education Residency Expansion Board determines that funds appropriated are available after all eligible planning grant applications have been funded, the board shall award planning grants from excess funds to support new medical fellows who:

1. (1) Have completed at least three (3) years of residency; and
2. (2) Are enrolled in a new fellowship program in a field in which this state has less than eighty percent (80%) of the national average of physicians per one hundred thousand (100,000) people, as determined by the board.

(b) A planning grant under this section shall be used to support the direct fellowship costs to the graduate medical education program, including without limitation:

1. (1) Stipends; and
2. (2) Benefits.

(c)

1. (1) Distribution of a planning grant for a new fellowship position under this section will only occur after the board receives verification that the applicable new fellowship position has been filled.

2. (2) Verification will be completed by sending the following to the Division of Higher Education upon receipt:

   1. (A) The notification of decision from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; and
   2. (B) Verification of the new fellowship contract.