§293k Primary Care Training and Enhancement

Summary

The federal government can give grants or make contracts with hospitals, medical schools, physician assistant programs, and other nonprofit groups to start, run, or improve primary care training. This money can support residencies and internships in family medicine, general internal medicine, and general pediatrics; pay trainees and fellows who plan to work in those fields; train doctors to teach or work in community settings; run or expand physician assistant education; test new ways to deliver care (like patient-centered medical homes) and teach those methods; and create joint graduate programs that mix public health with other health fields. Awards usually pay out for up to 5 years. The government may give extra priority to programs that train residents in rural areas, including tribal areas. The law also lets the government give grants to medical schools to build or improve academic units that teach and research primary care, or to bring units together to train across professions. Preference goes to applicants that set up or grow these units, work together across departments, use modern care models, train many students who stay in primary care, recruit underrepresented or rural students, teach care for vulnerable groups, partner with community clinics, and teach team-based, evidence-based, and culturally competent care. For carrying out most of this work, Congress authorized $48,924,000 each year for fiscal years 2021 through 2025, with 15% of that each year reserved for physician assistant primary care training. An earlier small fund of $750,000 per year was authorized for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to support integrating academic units. Fields named: family medicine — care for people of all ages and families; general internal medicine — adult medical care; general pediatrics — medical care for infants, children, and teens.