The Department of Health and Human Services has published a new interest rate for money owed back to it: 11 7/8 percent a year, or 11.875 percent, on overdue debt covered by the agency’s claims-collection regulations. The rate appears in a Federal Register notice HHS filed on August 28, 2026, and it’s tied to the statutes governing two federal health-workforce programs, the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program and the National Research Service Award Program. For anyone who owes HHS money tied to one of those programs, that’s the rate now accruing on the unpaid balance.
How HHS Sets Its Overdue-debt Interest Rate
HHS doesn’t pick this number on its own. Under Section 30.18 of the agency’s claims collection regulations, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to charge an annual interest rate that the Secretary of the Treasury sets, after weighing private consumer interest rates, as of the date HHS becomes entitled to recover a given debt. That rate can’t fall below Treasury’s current value-of-funds rate or the applicable rate from Treasury’s own “Schedule of Certified Interest Rates with Range of Maturities,” unless HHS waives interest entirely or a different rate is written into a specific statute, contract, or repayment agreement. Treasury can revise the underlying figure quarterly, and HHS is required to publish whatever rate results in the Federal Register each time it changes. This particular notice was signed by Yianting Lee, HHS’s acting director of the Office of Financial Policy and Reporting, and it followed the agency’s routine path: filed for public inspection on August 28, 2026, then formally published three days later.
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Why the Rate Is Tied to Scholarship and Research-Award Programs
The notice itself certifies the rate for the quarter that ended June 30, 2026, and cites the “Interest Rates for Specific Legislation” governing the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program and the National Research Service Award Program. The NHSC scholarship pays tuition, fees, and a living stipend to primary care students in exchange for at least two years of full-time service at an approved site in a medically underserved community; someone who takes the money and doesn’t complete that service commitment can be required to repay it. The research-award program works on a similar payback logic: a recipient of postdoctoral National Research Service Award support owes a month of qualifying research, research training, or teaching service for every month of support received, has to start that service within two years of when the award ends, and can be required to repay the government under a set formula if the obligation goes unmet. This notice doesn’t cap its own scope to only those two programs — it’s HHS’s general claims-collection rate — but it specifically flags these two as the statutory basis for this quarter’s certification, and it doesn’t disclose how large the outstanding balance is nationally or how many borrowers currently owe money.
11.875 Percent Is Nearly Double the Current IRS Rate
For comparison, the IRS’s own underpayment rate for individual taxpayers is 7 percent a year for the quarter beginning October 1, 2026, unchanged from the third quarter. HHS’s 11.875 percent applies to a much narrower pool of debt than IRS underpayments do, but the gap is a useful reminder that federal agencies don’t all charge the same rate on money owed to them; each one calculates its own figure under its own statutory formula, and HHS’s happens to land well above what the IRS currently charges on an unpaid tax bill.
The Rate Stays in Effect Until HHS Publishes a Replacement
HHS’s notice states plainly that this rate applies to overdue debt “until the Department of Health and Human Services publishes a revision.” That means 11.875 percent isn’t guaranteed to hold indefinitely; Treasury can revise its underlying certified figure as often as quarterly, and HHS has generally followed with a new Federal Register notice whenever that number moves. Anyone tracking a specific balance owed to HHS should check for a newer notice before assuming this rate is still the one in force. The rate has moved before: it was calculated fresh for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, which implies HHS certified a different figure for the prior quarter, underscoring that this is a moving number tied to Treasury’s own quarterly cycle rather than a fixed penalty rate written once into regulation.
Who Actually Owes Money Under These Programs
The debt behind this notice isn’t a routine medical bill or a Medicare premium. NHSC scholars who don’t complete their service commitment, and National Research Service Award recipients who don’t fulfill the “payback” obligation attached to their postdoctoral research support, are the population this specific rate is built around; NRSA’s own rules require the government to recover a set amount, calculated by formula, when that obligation goes unmet. For that group, this notice is the rate now accruing on whatever principal a separate HHS determination already found they owe.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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