This bill adds a new section to the Public Health Service Act to create grant programs that support planning and building physician residency training in rural areas. One program gives grants to eligible groups to start or expand rural residency programs. Another program gives grants for technical assistance to help awardees and people who want to apply. Grants for residency programs may be 3 years long and technical assistance grants may be 4 years. Grants can be fully funded when awarded and may be extended by the Secretary of Health.
The bill defines eligible entities broadly. Eligible groups can include public or private nonprofit or for-profit organizations, Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations, faith-based groups, rural hospitals, rural health clinics, tribal health centers, graduate medical education consortia, medical schools (including allopathic and osteopathic schools and historically Black colleges or universities), and other groups the Secretary allows. A rural residency program must be an accredited physician residency that trains residents in rural areas for more than half of their residency time and focuses on producing physicians who will practice in rural areas. The Secretary decides how to define "rural."
The bill lists pathways that federal grants may support. These include general primary care and high-need specialties (such as family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, or general surgery) and maternal health and obstetrics (including obstetrics and gynecology or family medicine with enhanced obstetrical training). The Secretary may approve other pathways as appropriate. The bill authorizes funding and sets application requirements to be detailed by the Secretary.
If you are part of a rural hospital, clinic, medical school, Tribal health program, or community group, you could apply for grants to start or add rural residency training sites. The grants can fund programs that train doctors mostly in rural areas and aim to increase rural physicians. If you are a medical educator, the bill allows funding for technical help to set up or run rural residency programs and to help new applicants compete for grants. The Secretary will set application rules, definitions of rural areas, and which other pathways qualify.
The bill authorizes $12,700,000 each year for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out these new grant programs. Any amounts appropriated are to remain available until spent.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.