Teaching Health Centers: An Attainable, Near-Term Pathway To Expand Graduate Medical Education

We describe a near-term and attainable pathway to expand GME that could gain consensus among these stakeholders. This approach would sustain and expand Teaching Health Centers (THCs), a recent initiative that directly funds community-based GME sponsoring institutions to train residents in primary care specialties, dentistry and psychiatry. We further propose selectively expanding GME to meet primary care and other demonstrable specialty needs within communities, and building in evaluations to measure effectiveness of innovative training models. Our proposal includes: Congressional reauthorization and funding of the THC GME program, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); additional primary care and other specialty GME expansion utilizing the new Veterans Affairs (VA) GME positions; strategic primary care and other specialty GME expansion based on state workforce needs using Medicaid GME funds (See Note 1); THC expansion based on the outcome of a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) funded study of modified THC demonstrations associated with Community Health Center (CHC)/Academic Medicine (AM) partnerships (CHAMPs). This GME innovation could help sustain CHCs and improve access to care for Medicaid beneficiaries and other low-income patients while preparing residents for 21st Century practice. Our proposal, and its timeline for implementation, is feasible because it provides near-term GME expansion where most urgently needed; re...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: All Categories Disparities Health Care Costs Health Reform Hospitals Medicaid Medicare Physicians Policy Politics Primary Care Veterans Workforce Source Type: blogs