$4.5 million in grants awarded to increase GME in Texas

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has announced awards of more than $4.5 million over the next two years in two programs designed to expand residency training. The new grants are part of a set of initiatives TAFP championed in the 83rd Texas Legislature to increase the number of residency positions available in the state and to strengthen Texas’ primary care infrastructure.

In the first announcement, nine hospitals will receive $1.3 million in planning grants to study the feasibility of creating new graduate medical education programs. These grants are for hospitals that have never drawn Medicare funding for residency training, and so would be eligible for some Medicare GME payments for newly created positions. The grants went to Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center in Houston, Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Hopkins County Memorial Hospital in Sulphur Springs, Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco, Memorial Health System of East Texas in Lufkin, Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring, DeTar Healthcare System in Victoria, Texoma Medical Center in Denison and Weatherford Regional Medical Center in Weatherford.

The other program provides state funding for existing residency programs to fill currently approved but unfilled first-year residency positions. Over the next two years, THECB will provide $3.25 million to seven health related institutions to fill first-year positions in primary care specialties, psychiatry, and anesthesiology. In the second year, the program will support 50 new residency positions.