A bipartisan health bill in Congress is using the opioid crisis as a way to pay for doctor training and medical residency slots, an area of federal funding that hasn’t expanded in two decades. The Opioid Workforce Act would create 1,000 new "Medicare-supported" medical residency positions , training “new doctors in addiction medicine, addiction psychiatry or pain management,” U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said. 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 graduate medical education (GME) in the U.S. But the latest legislative push to increase federally-supported residency slots is more "targeted," supporters say.

Source: Forbes May 17, 2018 12:00 UTC