WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and six bipartisan members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee released a policy outline describing improvements to the Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) program to address physician workforce shortages across the country, primarily related to primary care and psychiatry, and to improve the distribution of physicians to rural and underserved communities.
“It has become clear that there are not enough physicians to meet the health care needs of Americans,” wrote the senators. “As a bipartisan group of members of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Medicare Graduate Medical Education program, we are interested in advancing additional Medicare GME proposals to address health care workforce shortages and gaps.”
The outline includes proposals to expand and improve the distribution of Medicare-supported GME residency training positions to rural areas and specialties in shortage, help rural hospitals with the infrastructure needed to support residency training programs, and improve federal data collection to make sure that federal GME dollars are being used to train in specialties and geographic areas facing a physician shortage.
Cassidy and Wyden are joined by U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
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