Study points to 'imbalance' in spending on doctor training

Florida and New York have roughly the same population, but New York has five times as many Medicare-sponsored residency training positions and seven times the Medicare funding graduate medical education. The numbers give a glimpse into the "imbalance" in how Medicare distributes its $10 billion a year for graduate medical education (GME), according to a study by George Washington University researchers published Monday in Health Affairs. New York state received 20 percent of all Medicare's graduate medical education funding while 29 states, including places struggling with a severe shortage of physicians, got less than 1 percent, the study said.