A long list of health care associations - including the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Medical Association, and others - that comprise the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Advocacy Coalition has offered support for recently introduced Congressional legislation, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act. 

The Medicare program subsidizes a portion of physician residency training costs incurred by teaching hospitals through both direct GME payments and indirect medical education payments, and the new legislation would expand the physician workforce by increasing the number of Medicare-supported GME residency positions available for the support over a seven-year period.

The new legislation is sponsored in the House by Reps. Terri Sewell, John Katko, Tom Suozzi and Rodney Davis; and the sponsors in the Senate are Senators Robert Menendez, Charles Schumer and JohnBoozman.