On March 14, 2016, the US Senate and the US House of Representatives both introduced the Advancing Medical Resident Training in Community Hospitals Act. If passed, this legislation would solve the so-called "resident rotator" problem described in detail in a recent GME @ Dentons article, " Be careful with resident rotators: What you don't know might hurt your hospital's ability to receive Medicare GME payments in the future."

The bill was introduced in the Senate (S 2671) by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Representatives Reid Ribble (R-WI) and Ron Kind (D-WI) were the lead sponsors of the bill in the House (H.R. 4732). The legislation addresses three problems:

  • Accidental establishment of a hospital's resident limit, or "cap": The bill would permit community hospitals whose caps were accidentally established by small numbers of resident rotators to build and receive Medicare funding for new residency programs. Under the legislation, any hospital whose cap was established based on training fewer than 3.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) resident rotators from new residency training programs between October 1, 1997, and the date of enactment, would be permitted to establish new GME caps.
  • Accidental establishment of a hospital's per-resident amount (PRA): The bill would permit community hospitals whose PRAs were accidentally established by small numbers of resident rotators to build and receive Medicare funding for new residency training programs. Under the legislation, any hospital whose PRA was established based on training fewer than 3.0 FTE resident rotators between October 1, 1997, and the date of enactment, would be permitted to establish a new PRA.
  • Extremely low base year cap: Any hospital whose base year GME cap was set based on the training of less than 1.0 FTE resident prior to October 1, 1997, would be permitted to establish a new PRA.

Moving forward, a hospital's GME caps and its PRA would not be established until the hospital trained more than 1.0 FTE resident in a given fiscal year.

The Dentons team listed here will continue to track congressional action on this bill and advocate for its passage on behalf of our clients.

Dentons is the world's first polycentric global law firm. A top 20 firm on the Acritas 2015 Global Elite Brand Index, the Firm is committed to challenging the status quo in delivering consistent and uncompromising quality and value in new and inventive ways. Driven to provide clients a competitive edge, and connected to the communities where its clients want to do business, Dentons knows that understanding local cultures is crucial to successfully completing a deal, resolving a dispute or solving a business challenge. Now the world's largest law firm, Dentons' global team builds agile, tailored solutions to meet the local, national and global needs of private and public clients of any size in more than 125 locations serving 50-plus countries. www.dentons.com.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.