Physician workforce: caps on Medicare-funded graduate medical education at teaching hospitals : report to Congressional requesters
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, May 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Education, Medical, Graduate -- economics Government Regulation Hospitals, Teaching -- economics Medicare -- economics Physicians -- supply & distribution United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. Studies have shown the United States faces a shortage of physicians, making it increasingly difficult for people to access needed health care. Physicians need GME training before they can practice medicine independently and often practice in the same geographic area as their training. The vast majority of federal funding for this training—about $15 billion in 2018—supports physician training through the Department of Health and Human Services' Medicare GME payments. Medicare offers payments to teaching hospitals to offset costs of training full-time equivalent residents, up to a capped number of resident slots for each hospital. For most hospitals, caps reflect the number of residents that Medicare funded in 1996; for hospitals starting their first new GME program in 1997 or later, caps were based on the number of Medicare-funded residents trained at the end of a specific time window. GAO was asked to review Medicare GME funding. This report, among other issues, describes the extent to which hospitals were over or under their Medicare GME caps and stakeholders’ views on extending the time window before new caps are established. GAO analyzed 2018 Medicare data (the most recent available at the time of GAO's analysis), reviewed agency documentation, and interviewed eight selected stakeholder groups— including a GME accreditor and groups representing health care providers— identified through past GAO work. The Department of Health and Human Services provided technical comments on a draft of this report, which GAO incorporated as appropriate.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (ii, 25 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317485206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317485206676