●

- Addressed

◐

- Partially Addressed

○

- Not Addressed

◉

- Consolidated or Other

℗

- Pending

⊘

- Closed-Partially Addressed

⊗

- Closed-Not Addressed

Year Identified: 2018

Area Number: 5

Area Type: Fragmentation, Overlap & Duplication

Action:

The Secretary of Health and Human Services should coordinate with federal agencies that fund graduate medical education (GME) training, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to identify information needed to evaluate the performance of federal programs that fund GME training, including the extent to which these programs are efficient and cost-effective and are meeting the nation’s health care workforce needs.

Progress:

No executive action taken. Though the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concurred with GAO's March 2018 recommendation, as of January 2020 HHS had yet to identify information needed to evaluate the performance of federal programs that fund GME training.

In January 2020, HHS reiterated its comments on GAO's report, noting that the President's fiscal year 2020 budget for HHS proposed consolidating federal spending from Medicare, Medicaid, the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program, and the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program into a single grant program for teaching hospitals. The President’s fiscal year 2021 budget for HHS also included this proposal. HHS indicated that this proposal would be an important first step toward putting in place improved expectations and information for monitoring performance. HHS did not indicate whether it had coordinated with federal agencies that fund GME training. As of January 2020, this proposal had not been adopted.

As GAO noted in its March 2018 report, this recommendation stands on its own and is separate from any legislative efforts to modify how federal GME funds are distributed. Whether or not legislation is enacted to implement a consolidated federal GME grant program, HHS should take action to improve the information that agencies collect about how federal funding is used to support GME training. Such actions are important for HHS to assess the cost-effectiveness of federal efforts to help meet the nation's health care workforce needs.

Action:

The Secretary of Health and Human Services should coordinate with federal agencies that fund graduate medical education (GME) training, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to identify opportunities to improve the quality and consistency of the information collected within and across federal programs, and implement these improvements.

Progress:

No executive action taken. Though the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concurred with GAO's March 2018 recommendation, as of January 2020 HHS had yet to identify opportunities to improve the quality and consistency of information collected within and across federal programs that fund GME training.

In January 2020, HHS reiterated its comments on GAO's report, noting that the President's fiscal year 2020 budget for HHS proposed consolidating federal spending from Medicare, Medicaid, the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program, and the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program into a single grant program for teaching hospitals. The President’s fiscal year 2021 budget for HHS also included this proposal. HHS indicated that this proposal would be an important first step toward putting in place improved expectations and information for monitoring performance. HHS did not indicate whether it had coordinated with federal agencies that fund GME training. As of January 2020, this proposal had not been adopted.

As GAO noted in its March 2018 report, this recommendation stands on its own and is separate from any efforts to modify how federal GME funds are distributed. Whether or not legislation is enacted to implement a consolidated federal GME grant program, HHS should take action to improve the quality and consistency of any information that agencies collect about how federal funding is used to support GME training. Such actions are important for HHS to assess the cost-effectiveness of federal efforts to help meet the nation's health care workforce needs.