Boozman wants to create more residency slots in Arkansas

August 12, 2019 at 11:05 a.m.

by Alex Golden

NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER U.S. Sen. John Boozman speaks Monday before a panel discussion at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale, called to address the shortage of physician residency positions in Arkansas and how the "The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act" can help.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER U.S. Sen. John Boozman speaks Monday before a panel discussion at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale, called to address the shortage of physician residency positions in Arkansas and how the "The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act" can help.

SPRINGDALE -- Sen. John Boozman wants to pass a law to help create more residency slots for medical school graduates in an effort to attract and retain doctors in Arkansas, he said Monday.

Federal law caps federal financial support for graduate medical education nationwide at the number of residency slots a facility had in 1996. Boozman, along with other senators, has introdcued the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act.

The act would increase the number of residency slots in the U.S. by 3,000 each year from 2021 to 2025.

"Graduate medical education is a huge issue. We lose a very high percentage -- probably 40% plus -- of our graduates from medical school going off and doing residencies someplace else," Boozman said Monday at a summit on graduate medical education at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education.

NW News on 08/13/2019

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