U.S. Awards 400 New Residencies As Down Payment On Doctor Shortage

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is distributing a much-needed batch of 400 new Medicare-supported graduate medical education positions to residency programs across the U.S.

These residency slots were created under the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2021 and the CAA of 2023 and are intended to help grow the physician workforce and address the nation’s doctor shortage, particularly in the primary care field. More than 60 percent of the newly awarded positions will go to primary care and psychiatry residency programs, CMS said.

“These additional residency positions demonstrate bipartisan support for continued investment in physician training and are instrumental to increasing access to care for patients by allowing more residents to serve communities nationwide,” said David J. Skorton, MD, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which includes 160 U.S. medical schools and nearly 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals as its members. “Although there is still a lot of work to be done to help alleviate the persistent physician shortage in this country, today is another very meaningful step forward.”

The AAMC for years has been working with members of Congress to find ways to increase federal support for medical education and residency slots, in particular. Medicare health insurance for the elderly is the primary source for GME in the U.S., but the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 capped the number of residents and fellows in an effort to reign in federal spending.

But legislation signed into law by Republican President Donald Trump in his first term and a second phase under Democratic President Joe Biden added some new slots such as when new teaching hospitals open or rural hospitals add new programs. The 1,200 or so residency slots funded under those respective year-end spending packages signed under those administrations will be needed to help put a dent in a doctor shortage projected at up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, the AAMC says.

The 400 new slots announced Friday are “the fourth distribution of positions provided by the CAA, 2021 and the first and only by the CAA, 2023,” the AAMC said in a statement. “To date, CMS has awarded more than half of the 1,200 total positions made available by Congress. Overall, 135 hospitals in 37 states received new residency positions.”

An increase in the number of residency slots funded by Medicare helps hospitals and health systems across the U.S. to increase their numbers of doctors in training that will eventually increase the size of the physician workforce.

“We’re thrilled that the hard work of our AAMC members, our partners in the GME Advocacy Coalition, and bipartisan Congressional champions continues to produce results through the distribution of these critical Medicare-supported GME positions,” said AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP. “Providing additional medical residency positions is a pivotal step toward helping to alleviate the national physician shortage and chip away at the cap on slots that has been in effect for almost 30 years.”

But the AAMC acknowledged there’s still work to be done. The AAMC continues to advocated for the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025, which “would gradually increase the number of Medicare-supported GME positions, enabling critical progress toward growing a sustainable physician workforce to meet the nation’s patient care needs,” the blockociation said. The legislation, introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman and fellow Senators Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York this past summer would gradually increase the number of Medicare-funded residency positions by 14,000 over seven years.

“While we are grateful to CMS for the record-number of additional positions, we will continue advocating for more residency positions to help ensure the country has the physicians necessary to meet the growing and ever-changing health care needs of all patients in all communities,” Turnipseed said.