The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), awarded nearly $11 million to 15 awardees to establish new residency programs in rural communities and strengthen the health workforce. The funding aims to address physician shortages in underserved rural areas and improve access to care for rural Americans.

"Training residents in rural areas leads more medical school graduates to stay and practice in rural settings," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in an official news release. "There's a shortage of doctors across the nation, especially in our most underserved communities, and these rural residency development grants will help address this shortage."

Rural areas make up more than 70% of those categorized as primary medical Health Professional Shortage Areas, the release said. Rural Americans have less access to care and worse health outcomes due to a lack of physicians, poverty and geographic isolation. Hospital obstetric services are absent in more than half of the rural American counties. 

Three of the 15 funds will be utilized particularly to create new family medicine residency programs with improved obstetrical training in rural regions in response to the decreasing access to maternal health care in those areas, the release said.

Amounts of up to $750,000 will be given to each award recipient to start new rural residence programs. The money may be used to pay for accreditation fees, curriculum development, efforts to attract and keep professors, initiatives to draw in residents and consultation services to help with program growth (such as financing), according to the release. 

Award recipients will have access to one-on-one advisor support, tools and resources from the HRSA-funded Rural Residency Planning and Development Technical Assistance Center during the term of their grant to help them through the many stages of program development. The Biden-Harris administration continues to place a high premium on retaining and attracting physicians in underserved and rural communities, the release said. 

The funding provided by HRSA for the Rural Residency Planning and Development program from fiscal years 2019 through 2022 totaled more than $43 million, according to the release. These awards are an expansion of that.

In order to enhance health equity and access to treatment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have also been making important progress, the release said. The first 200 of the 1,000 new medical residency positions financed by Medicare will be awarded by CMS in January 2023.

In distributing the new resident positions, CMS gave hospitals with training programs in regions with the highest need for additional medical professionals — as identified by Health Professional Shortage Areas — priority, the release reported. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 that was passed by Congress established additional residency spaces for psychiatry positions in fiscal year 2025.

Rural emergency hospitals (REHs) could be classified as graduate medical education training locations for fiscal year 2024, according to a CMS proposal. As a result, more medical residents would be able to complete their training in rural areas, assisting in addressing those areas' manpower shortages, the release said. The plan expands on earlier initiatives to enhance rural and other underserved groups' access to healthcare. 

If adopted, these modifications will enable rural hospitals to act as teaching locations for Medicare GME payment purposes once they become REHs, thereby supporting graduate medical training in rural areas, according to the release.