AMA continues efforts to expand funding for GME

Continuing its efforts to ensure patients have access to an adequate physician workforce, the AMA today adopted policy aimed at making sure there is sufficient funding for medical residency positions. Currently, hospitals that begin sponsoring residency training and become eligible for graduate medical education (GME) funding under Medicare have a maximum of five years to establish all residency programs before the institution’s Medicare GME funding cap is set. Based on the new policy, the AMA will advocate to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to modify its current Medicare GME requirements to allow institutions ample time to create new residency programs to care for patients in underserved and economically depressed areas.

“The AMA remains committed to expanding GME funding to ensure we train enough physicians to meet the nation’s changing health care needs,” said AMA Board Member and resident Omar Z. Maniya, M.D. “The current five-year deadline for developing new residency programs in underserved areas before a cap is placed on the amount of Medicare funding they can receive for these programs is not effective. We will urge CMS to give institutions the time they need to identify qualified, willing teaching partners to create residency programs that are able to meet the needs of patients in underserved areas.”