The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that will fund additional medical residency positions in hospitals serving rural and underserved communities.
The rule establishes policies to distribute 1,000 new Medicare-funded physician residency slots to qualifying hospitals, phasing in 200 slots per year over five years. The CMS said it estimates that funding for the additional residency slots will total approximately $1.8 billion over the next 10 years once fully phased in.
It also said this is the largest increase in Medicare-funded residency slots in over 25 years through implementing a section of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). Other sections of the CAA aim to further promote increasing training in rural areas and increasing graduate medical education payments to hospitals meeting certain criteria.
The first round of 200 residency slots will be announced by January 31, 2023, and will go into effect on July 1, 2023.
