MEDICARE GME FUNDING CUTS INFO SHEET

BackgroundMedicare was created in 1965 as a health insurance program for the nation’s elderly. It also covers several groups of people, generally thought of as long-term disabled.

As part of this legislation, the Direct Graduate Medical Education payment system was created to compensate teaching hospitals for Medicare’s share of the costs directly related to training residents (salaries for residents, teaching faculty, admin staff). Currently, this is ~$3 billion/year.

In 1983, Congress added Indirect Graduate Medical Education payment to help teaching hospitals defray the cost of caring for the most complex patients as the DRG case system failed to account for the severity of illness of patients requiring the specialized treatment provided by teaching institutions and the additional costs of teaching residents. Currently, ~$6.5 billion/year.

Medicare GME funding has been effectively capped since 1997 (forcing teaching institutions to cut residency slots, programs, or find alternate methods of financing).

Intro Script-Call 1-866-727-4894. Ask for the office of your legislator.-Probably leaving a message. Leave name, address, phone number/email address (optional).-Remember: RESPECTFUL!! FACTS!! LOCAL/PERSONAL ANECDOTE!! THANK THEM!!“As a psychiatric physician and a constituent, I wanted to urge Senator/Congressman _____ to oppose suggested cuts for Graduate Medical Education in the ongoing deficit reduction talks. As a resident in the largest academic medical center in Western Pennsylvania, I know these cuts could result in fewer residents trained to be PA physicians, decreased services to some of the sickest patients in PA, and ultimately, increased costs and health care problems down the line.

Training additional physicians to address PA’s current and future medical workforce shortage must be a priority; cuts in funding will reduce access to essential healthcare services in communities across PA. Please oppose these suggested cuts to the physician workforce.”

Talking Points-This will result in the loss of residency slots in established residency programs and the elimination of residency programs in smaller programs across the country (especially in rural areas!). Even a SMALL (~2-3%) cut means residency slots lost!

-We’re going to need MORE physicians, not LESS! We’re looking at a shortage of 6,000 to 8,000/year over the next 20 years to avoid a crisis in access to health care.

-These cuts would cut funding from the very hospitals at the front line of providing care for the nation’s most complex and challenging patient populations (Trauma ICUs, Burn centers).

-We understand the need to curb the national debt, but this is cutting core investment spending that will cost more in the long run.

-Teaching hospitals are huge economic engines. Cutting this funding results in lost jobs, local economic decline. PA has a large number of teaching hospitals!