North Charlotte Today

Senator Thom Tillis, along with six bipartisan members of the Senate Finance Committee, has released a policy outline aimed at enhancing the Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. The proposal seeks to address physician workforce shortages, particularly in primary care and psychiatry, and 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. 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 senators wrote.

The policy outline includes measures to expand and better distribute Medicare-supported GME residency training positions to rural areas and specialties experiencing shortages. It also aims to assist rural hospitals with infrastructure necessary for supporting residency training programs and enhance federal data collection to ensure that federal GME funds are directed towards training in specialties and geographic areas facing physician shortages.

The full text of the policy outline is available online.