According to Keith New, a spokesman for FedLoan, which is a part of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and is the servicer for the forgiveness program, the initial confusion resulted from the fact that “information was not provided surrounding the difference in paying the installment amount versus the bill due amount and how the paid ahead status can affect qualifying payments.”

Given that FedLoan could have been clearer here, will it arrange for the payments that Dr. White made during this period of confusion to count toward forgiveness? I asked, but Mr. New did not reply.

The Wrong Employer

Only certain jobs — perhaps a quarter of all forms of employment — qualify for public service loan forgiveness. Just to be sure, everyone in the program ought to submit what’s known as an “employer certification form” each year to make sure that his or her employer qualifies or still qualifies.

Edge cases have already been the subject of litigation, as I outlined in a 2016 column. But Chris Golding, who works for the North Carolina Nurses Association in Raleigh, N.C., did not know that. Others at the association thought that it qualified, but you can’t get an instant reading on the matter in the time it takes to consider a job offer.

Alas, when Mr. Golding submitted his form, he received a reply last November saying that he was not eligible. There was no detailed explanation, and Mr. Golding said he was unable to get one when he called FedLoan.

The rules state that an employer must provide a “qualifying public service.” In Mr. Golding’s case, the governing language would appear to be a requirement that an organization’s “primary” purpose is to provide “public health” services. Mr. Golding is a registered nurse. He does not treat patients, but he does support other nurses through education.

Mr. New, the FedLoan spokesman, added a bit more detail. “While his employer is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization, its primary purpose is not one that would be considered as a public service,” he said. He added that FedLoan’s customer service department had consulted with its own compliance services division in making that determination.