Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025

Key Points

• This bill would add 14,000 new Medicare-funded residency training positions over seven years, with 2,000 new spots distributed each year from 2026 through 2032. These positions help hospitals train more doctors by raising the cap on how many residents Medicare will pay for.
• One-third of the new positions each year are reserved for hospitals already training more residents than their current Medicare cap allows. These hospitals must train at least 25% of their residents in primary care and general surgery to qualify and must keep doing so for five years.
• At least 10% of remaining positions must go to each of four hospital categories: rural hospitals, hospitals already over their cap, hospitals in states with new medical schools, and hospitals in areas designated as health professional shortage areas.
• Hospitals in health professional shortage areas that are affiliated with Historically Black Medical Schools get top priority when positions are handed out. Six HBCUs are specifically named in the bill, including Howard University and Morehouse School of Medicine.
• The bill authorizes $12.7 million per year for five years to create new rural residency training programs and provide technical assistance for starting them. These programs must train residents in rural areas for more than half their residency time.
• The Government Accountability Office would study strategies to increase diversity in the health workforce, focusing on professionals from rural, lower-income, and underrepresented minority communities, and report to Congress within two years.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.