Physicians at the 2015 AMA Annual Meeting passed policy to address insufficient funding for graduate medical education (GME) ahead of a predicted shortage of 46,000-90,000 physicians over the next decade.
Part of the new policy is based on a report from the AMA Council on Medical Education, which stresses the need for increased medical residency slots and expanded funding sources for GME. The policy calls for the AMA to advocate for continued and expanded GME funding from federal, state, local and private sources.
Specifically, the AMA will push for federal funding for the National Health Care Workforce Commission, which is charged with identifying barriers limiting health care workforce production and encouraging innovations that can address the current and future personnel requirements of the health care system. The policy asks the commission to provide the nation with data and policy that supports the value of GME.
Related policy on GME funding also adopted at the meeting includes:
- Collaborating with the Association of American Medical Colleges, the National Resident Matching Program, the American Osteopathic Association and other stakeholders to study the common reasons medical students fail to match to residency slots
- Directing the AMA to study and report back on potential pathways to reengage in medicine for those who do not match.
- Urging Congress to reauthorize the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program to its full and ongoing funding needs. The program currently supports 60 training centers with 550 primary care physicians and dentists in underserved areas.
The new policies are timely, considering the recent record-breaking number of unmatched students who have graduated from medical school without securing a place to complete their training.
The AMA recently supported both the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act, which would increase Medicare-funded residency positions, and the Creating Access to Residency Education Act, which would create grants for GME positions in states with low rates of residents relative to the general population.
Students and residents continue to advocate for expanded GME programs, using social media and other tools that call on Congress to #SaveGME.
