Graduate Medical Education (GME)

Graduate medical education (GME) is the supervised, hands-on training after medical school that all physicians must complete to be licensed and practice independently, and Medicare is the primary public source of funding for GME. Medicare funding helps offset the stipends paid to residents, the costs of supervision, and the increased costs associated with operating teaching programs. As part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, a hospital-level cap was placed on Medicare support for GME which has stymied significant increases in residency training, creating a bottleneck for the physician workforce.

On two historic occasions in 2021 and 2023, a broad bipartisan coalition of members of Congress representing diverse districts, states, and communities worked together to provide 1,200 new Medicare-supported GME – the first increases of their kind in nearly 25 years. These increases in residency positions were important initial investments, but more is needed to strengthen the physician workforce and ensure patients throughout the country can access the care they need.

With the potential for a large-scale, impending doctor shortage of of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, the AAMC Action community fights to protect and expand GME funding to strengthen and diversify the health workforce to meet the needs of patients nationwide. 

AAMC Action urges Congress to pass the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (H.R. 2389/S. 1302), bipartisan legislation that would help address the physician shortage by gradually increasing the number of Medicare-supported residency positions by 14,000 over seven years. This increase would help make progress in providing the necessary primary care and specialty physicians needed to meet the country’s workforce needs.