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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESScramble for residency slots produces rural gains, lossesTeaching hospitals in small urban areas benefited the most from the reallocation program, in which demand far outpaced supply.By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Nov. 28, 2005. An estimated 357 U.S. hospitals may see an increase in the number of medical residents after a historic, one-time only redistribution of government money left over from 3,000 unused residency slots. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in late October announced which hospitals would win the coveted slots and which would lose them. The redistribution is an effort to help alleviate the uneven distribution of physicians, particularly in underserved rural areas. While CMS declined to clarify its data on the redistribution, an analysis by the Assn. of American Medical Colleges showed that teaching hospitals in small urban areas saw a net gain in residency slots eligible for federal money, leading them as a group to benefit the most from the shuffling of funds mandated by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Though the program was designed to help rural hospitals, the results were mixed. Rural hospitals saw a net loss of resident slots, though every rural hospital that requested additional slots got them. Hospitals in large urban areas gave up the most slots. Karen Fisher, associate vice president for health care affairs at the AAMC, said it was unclear exactly how the redistribution was going to impact graduate medical education, but it was clear that demand was intense. In all, 1,800 programs at 540 hospitals requested 7,000 slots. That means hospitals asked for twice as many slots as were available, and they could have requested even more, she said, but were only allowed to ask for up to 25. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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