“Supporting Tomorrow’s Health Providers: Examining Workforce Programs Under the Public Health Service Act.”
Chairman Burgess, Ranking Member Green, and Distinguished Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you about the THCGME or Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program.
I am a family physician who has practiced for 40 years in the
I am pleased to provide some background on the substantial benefits for our nation generated by the THCGME program. I am also here today on behalf of my institution and as the President of the
In order to understand why this legislation is so critical, please permit me to share some background about our own teaching health center programs, our residents, and our patients.
The Institute employs over 1200 people, including almost 200 primary care physicians and family medicine residents. Last year, we cared for over 102,000 patients who made 650,000 primary care, behavioral health care and oral health visits. The Institute serves high-need, medically underserved communities in the inner-city neighborhoods of the
Nearly 80 percent of our patients are
One of the communities we serve, in
Five years ago, when the
Kristina entered residency training in
The Primary Care Physician Shortage and Teaching Health Centers
When the program started, I was asked by my colleagues to lead the newly established
The
While patient care increasingly occurs in ambulatory settings, such as CHCs, medical education occurs mainly in inpatient hospital facilities. This produces a health care workforce whose skills and experiences are poorly matched to the primary care needs of the population. In order to address the changing healthcare system and address the disparities in the health care workforce, the THCGME is training medical residents in community-based settings, including low income, underserved rural and urban neighborhoods.
The traditional method of residency training, funded primarily by CMS under a Medicare formula, is mainly focused on hospital-based training and the profile of physicians trained no longer matches the nation's needs - too few enter primary care and even fewer choose to practice in rural or underserved locations. In contrast, the THC model uses community-based ambulatory health centers, such as nonprofit community health centers and community consortia, to train primary care residents who will practice 21st century care in underserved communities during their training and after they complete their residencies. During their residency training, THC residents practice in the approved primary care specialties of Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and General Dentistry.
According to the 21st Report of the
Analysis of the THCGME programs continue to show promising results:
Reauthorization and the Benefits of H.R. 3394/S. 1754
With the looming primary care shortage on the horizon, investments in graduate medical education training will be critical to meet the needs of the evolving healthcare delivery system. The THCGME program is one of the most reliable training models for primary care physicians and has an overwhelming documented success, but has been critically underfunded and is at the brink of collapse. Without immediately strengthening and expanding, the program will unravel just as it is beginning to produce the urban and rural primary care workforce that is desperately needed.
Thankfully, Congresswoman
Congresswoman
Primary care saves lives and saves money and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program helps solve our primary care crisis. However, it is two weeks away from extinction.
We need it reauthorized now, and at the level recommended in the HRSA-funded study published last year, of
We are aware of fiscal pressures that
The McMorris Rodgers-Tsongas legislation funds
In closing, I want to stress that the health of all Americans requires that the other programs that you will hear about today, are also funded, timely and adequately.
Thank you for giving me the time to testify this morning.
Read this original document at: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF14/20170914/106404/HHRG-115-IF14-Wstate-CalmanN-20170914.pdf
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