HRS Supports Congressional Effort to Add New Graduate Medical Education Slots

HRS and members of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Advocacy Coalition sent a letter to the House and Senate sponsors in support of the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (H.R. 2389/S. 1302). 

The bicameral, bipartisan legislation, introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), would increase the number of Medicare-funded GME residency slots by 2,000 per year for each of seven years for a total of 14,000 new slots. Congress had frozen the number of positions in 1997 and additional slots are needed to address the estimated shortfall of up to 124,000 primary care and specialty physicians by 2034.