In a June 24 letter, the CAP recommended that Congress make larger investments in training slots when considering improvements to Medicare’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. The CAP responded to a proposal from a bipartisan group of Senators on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Medicare GME program, who are interested in advancing additional Medicare GME policies to address health care workforce shortages and gaps. Specifically, the CAP’s recommendations were for the Committee to:

• Add the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act to any GME related legislation that is drafted. The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act would provide 14,000 new Medicare-supported GME positions (for all physician types, including pathologists) over seven years. These positions would be targeted at hospitals with diverse needs, rural teaching hospitals, hospitals currently training over their Medicare caps, hospitals in states with new medical schools, and hospitals serving patients in health professional shortage areas.
• Consider dedicating a percentage of new Medicare-supported GME slots to pathology. As the Committee looks to add more primary care-specific slots, more pathologists are necessary to support an expanded primary care footprint to actualize the full benefits of access to a primary care physician for patients.
• Reauthorize and expand the Conrad 30 waiver program and pass loan deferment and forgiveness legislation to improve recruitment of physicians to work in rural or underserved communities.
• Study and publicize information about unused GME slots in combination with information about supply and demand for various physician specialties and subspecialities, including pathology.

Asking Congress to act on an issue works better with significant engagement by CAP members with their respective members. The CAP has asked its members to contact their members of Congress to urge passage of the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act. You can contact them here. For more information, review our issue brief.

Listen to “The Importance of Conrad 30 to Pathology” recorded in March 2024, this podcast features Andres Romero, MD, FCAP discussing the Conrad 30 waiver program and what it means to physicians like him.