Medicare and graduate medical education

Grassley Questions Aspects of Graduate Medical Education

Graduate medical education is the subject of inquiry in a recent letter from Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. In his letter to Secretary Azar, Senator Grassley asks for information about how federal GME money is spent and how much is spent, how federal money factors into the broader financing of hospital residency programs, and how the federal government ensures that GME programs engage in best practices. The letter also questions whether the indirect benefits of operating medical education programs are factored into how much the federal government spends on medical education, [...]

CBO Targets Health Care in Options for Reducing Deficit

Every year the Congressional Budget Office publishes a menu of options for reducing federal spending and the federal budget deficit. As in the past, this year’s compendium includes a number of options to reduce federal health care spending and raises federal revenue through health care initiatives. The cost-cutting options include: establish caps on federal spending for Medicaid limit states’ taxes on health care providers reduce federal Medicaid matching rates change the cost-sharing rules for Medicare and restrict Medigap insurance raise the age of eligibility for Medicare to 67 reduce Medicare’s coverage of bad debt consolidate and reduce federal payments for [...]