CMS Announces Recipients of 200 New GME Slots
Published December 18, 2023
By AACOM Government Relations
Advocacy Federal Policy GME GME Funding Healthcare Workforce OME Advocate
- Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the list of 200 GME slots awarded in the second round of distribution under Section 126 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
- The slots were awarded to 99 of the 229 hospitals that applied. View CMS' full list of awardees and applicants.
- To be awarded slots, Section 126 requires a hospital to qualify in at least one of four categories and mandates that at least 10 percent of the cap slots go to hospitals in each category:
- Hospitals in rural areas (or treated as being located in a rural area under the law)
- Hospitals training a number of residents in excess of their GME cap
- Hospitals in states with new medical schools or branch campuses
- Hospitals that serve areas designated as health professional shortage areas (HPSAs)
- This fourth eligibility category refers only to geographic HPSAs and not population HPSAs.
- According to an analysis by RuralGME, only two rurally located hospitals of the five that applied received slots. The remaining slots designated for rural areas went to rural referral centers located in urban areas in order to meet the statutory requirement that 10 percent of the slots go to hospitals located in (or treated as being located in) rural areas.
- We anticipate that applications for the third round of 200 slots will open in January 2024, with applications due March 31. To learn more about slot distribution under Section 126, see CMS’ FAQ.