August 3, 2023 - STOCKTON – Rep. Josh Harder (CA-9) has reintroduced his Train More Doctors Act, which would help bring more physicians to the region by expanding residency slots in local hospitals. San Joaquin County has been designated a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) for nearly three decades, and the region was already facing a shortage of doctors before the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Train More Doctors Act empowers San Joaquin County hospitals to recruit physicians and build out residency programs that were impacted by the pandemic. This legislation builds on Representative Harder’s efforts to ensure all San Joaquin families have access to high-quality medical care when and where they need it.

“San Joaquin families should have access to the health care they need without traveling far distances or waiting months for an appointment, and that means getting more doctors to the Valley,” said Rep. Harder. “The Train More Doctors Act cuts some of the red tape that prevents doctors from coming to, training in, and staying in the Valley. We know 57% of new doctors settle in the communities where they completed their residency, which means we need to make it easier for folks to enroll in these programs locally.”

The Train More Doctors Act extends the current Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) residency cap timeline by two years for teaching hospitals that have had their recruitment disrupted by the COVID-19 public health crisis. Currently, hospitals that establish residency programs in underserved areas are eligible for accreditation and funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) after a five-year building period. St. Joseph’s Medical Center in San Joaquin County, a chronically underserved area, started their residency program in 2018 and was expected to finish building by 2022. Since the pandemic prevented students, physicians, and doctors from traveling or relocating, recruitment severely slowed.

“We have worked hard, been creative but there is no doubt that the pandemic has had and will continue to have far reaching impacts on our success without relief in the form of an extension of our initial CAP build period. As an example of our creativity, we hired our Program Director for psychiatry without a visit to California, something we have never done before,” said Donald Wiley, President & CEO of St. Joseph's Medical Center of Stockton.

Specifically, the Train More Doctors Act would amend Title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend the period for certain teaching hospitals to establish full-time equivalent residency caps for new residency training programs impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the bill here.
Source: Congressman Josh Harder