Every time payroll taxes come out of your paycheck, a portion goes to support future doctors. Medical care is a social good, so society has chosen to subsidize medical training in at least two fashions.
First, our families and friends put up with as we dedicate ourselves to training. You accrue interpersonal debts that you can only repay by trying to become a decent doctor. (Sorry, all!)
Second, the big subsidies are collected by federal and state governments. Payroll deductions amounted, in 2022, to Medicare paying $4.5 billion to support the cost of training residents and an additional $11.68 billion to support the increased cost of providing care while training residents. Medicaid, in partnership between state and federal governments, contributes billions more. It’s still not enough, as the American Association of Medical Colleges estimates all that money covers only 22% of what it costs teaching hospitals to train physicians.
Here's a map/wiring diagram of where most of the money comes from.
Here's a question that will make your head spin: who funds GME? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine put together this visual to help you see the GME funding web.
GME is primarily funded by four federal public programs and agencies (Medicare, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DoD)) and one joint federal-state program (Medicaid).
Medicare-GME and Medicaid benefit from mandatory funding, which is always available and is separate from the annual federal budget cycle. HRSA, VA, and DoD GME programs, however, rely on the federal budget cycle for funding. Both require annual congressional appropriations (discretionary funding) and multi-year program authorizations that have to be renewed or else they will expire.
GME is also supported by private sources.
If you want to join the movement to reduce physician shortages in I/T/U medical facilities through expanded GME, check out aimesalliance.org and reach out to aimesalliance@leavittpartners.com today!
#GraduateMedicalEducation; #GME; #TribalHealth; #Alliance; #Collaboration; #PhysicianShortages; Scott Masin; Germane Solutions
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