Medicare: Graduate Medical Education Payment Policy Needs to Be Reexamined: Hehs-94-33

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Medicare financing for graduate medical education (GME), focusing on: (1) how Medicare compensates hospitals for GME costs; and (2) the extent of Medicare's support for primary care and nonprimary care physicians' GME.

GAO found that: (1) Medicare pays for about 29 percent of total GME direct costs, which totalled $1.46 billion in 1992; (2) although Congress modified Medicare's payment methodology in 1985 and 1986 to promote primary care training programs, Medicare funds are mostly used to support nonprimary care training; (3) the extent to which Medicare pays for primary and nonprimary care training has never been analyzed; (4) 60 percent of interns and residents received training in nonprimary care fields and 55 percent of Medicare GME payments were associated with nonprimary care training costs; (5) 40 percent of interns and residents received training in primary care fields and 45 percent of Medicare GME payments were associated with primary care training costs; (6) when it accounted for physicians who trained in primary care and entered nonprimary care fields, the proportion of nonprimary care physicians rose to 75 percent; and (7) the authority of hospitals to determine community needs and Medicare GME payment allocations may need to be reassessed as the need for primary care physicians increases.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1289095183
• ISBN13: 9781289095185
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Bibliogov
• Length: 36 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 7.4" x 9.7"