Source: AAFP News: Advocacy and Government
On January 7, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) opened applications for residency slots tied to the last round of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) openings stemming from the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). The American Academy of Family Physicians encourages eligible family medicine residency programs to apply by the Tuesday, March 31, deadline.
- operating in a rural area (or recognized as a rural area under the law)
- training more residents than its GME cap
- operating in a state with new medical schools or branch campuses
- serving a health professional shortage area.
At least 10% of the cap slots must go to hospitals in each of those four categories, with no single hospital receiving more than 25 FTE resident cap slots.
New Family Medicine GME Slots Answer Academy’s Workforce Advocacy
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded 32 new family medicine GME Medicare residency slots in December 2025, spread among 18 programs. The move includes new slots using a five-year GME expansion mandated by the CAA of 2021, policy that answered the Academy’s workforce advocacy.
The slots complement a 2024 win for the Academy’s workforce advocacy: an $11 million investment by Health and Human Services and HRSA to establish new residency programs in rural communities, including six new programs centered on family medicine residencies with enhanced obstetrical training. That same year saw the third round of GME slots opened by the 2021 legislation.
The Academy continues to press CMS for robust family medicine representation in Medicare’s GME program as a vital step to improving healthcare access in rural and underserved communities.
Read the full article in AAFP News: Advocacy and Government.