- Home
- Advocacy
- Latest News and Practice Data
- CMS Announces First Distribution of 200 GME Slots for Medical Residents in Underserved Areas
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the first award of 200 Medicare-supported graduate medical education (GME) slots. These 200 are part of the 1,000 GME slots that Congress created as part of the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2021. They will be available for the 2023 residency program effective July 1. Although the workforce issues facing pathology and laboratory medicine are complex, additional GME funding is an important foundation for medicine.
One hundred teaching hospitals in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico received awards in this year’s distribution. To be eligible for these additional full-time employee medical resident slots, a hospital must qualify in at least one of the following four categories:
- Must be in rural areas (or treated as being in a rural area under the law)
- Training a number of residents in excess of their GME cap
- In states with new medical schools or branch campuses
- Serve areas designated as health professional shortage areas
Additionally, no hospital can receive more than 25 full time equivalent resident cap slots. The application cycle for the second round of 200 slots for fiscal year 2024 is currently open and will remain open until March 31, 2023.