AACOM Announces Bill to Expand Rural GME
Published February 21, 2023
By AACOM Government Relations
Advocacy Federal Policy GME Healthcare Workforce OME Advocate Rural Medicine
AACOM teamed up with the rural graduate medical education (GME) coalition to introduce S. 230/H.R. 834, the Rural Physician Workforce Production Act. This bipartisan, budget neutral bill, led by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and John Barrasso (R-WY) and Representatives Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Don Bacon (R-NE) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), seeks to increase the physician workforce in rural areas by equitably funding rural residency training.
“Increasing access to quality healthcare in rural and underserved areas is a top priority for the osteopathic medical community, as DOs practice in these areas at high rates. Importantly, more than 73 percent of DOs practice in the state where they do residency training,” says AACOM President and CEO Robert A. Cain, DO. “Expanding rural residency training is critical to addressing our nation’s rural physician shortage and to ensuring that DOs have the opportunity to train in rural communities.”
The Rural Physician Workforce Production Act would lift residency caps that disadvantage rural hospitals seeking residents, extend equitable federal funding to rural hospitals for residency training and allow Medicare to reimburse urban hospitals that send residents to train in rural healthcare facilities. Join AACOM in supporting rural health and urge Congress to cosponsor and pass S. 230/H.R. 834 now!