Monday, April 22, 2013
LEGISLATURE INVESTING MORE IN GME
The state House and Senate
are both moving forward on bills to expand graduate medical education (GME)
slots in Texas. The measures are intended to help keep graduating medical
students — in whom the state has invested an average of $170,000 each — in
Texas. The Senate passed Senate Bill 143 by Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound),
which is the vehicle for allocating $11.5 million in the 2014-15 state budget
for GME expansion. It would establish a new grant program to encourage the
development of new GME positions/programs. The bill also offers GME planning
grants to help develop new hospital training partners for Texas’ medical schools
that may be eligible to receive Medicare GME funding. It also establishes two
primary care incentive programs for medical schools and expands the Physician
Education Loan Repayment Program to allow participation by physicians who
provide services to Medicaid and Women’s Health Program patients. Later this
week, the House is scheduled to take up House Bill 1025 by Rep. Jim Pitts
(R-Waxahachie). That measure, for now at least, would invest $17 million in GME
expansion over and above the House-passed budget.
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