Our Blog

Over the last decade, the amount of active certified geriatricians has not kept pace with America’s steadily growing elderly population.

President Biden just signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill; in contrast, the Build Back Better Act, a broader $1.75 trillion infrastructure plan that tackles areas such as climate change and healthcare as well, has yet to be signed.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, or H.R. 133, is expected to be fully enacted by 2025—five years after its passing.

How will the declining or changing birth rates affect specialty GME programs associated with childbirth or the youth?

As the GME landscape plays out and unfolds before the public’s eyes, Germane is at the forefront with constantly developing plans and pathways to guide teaching hospitals to their unique successes.

The second quarter of 2021 was a busy period at the federal level for Graduate Medical Education with two large updates coming from CMS and the Supreme Court.

In tandem with previous articles focused on legislative pursuits to combat the physician shortage such as the different iterations of the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Acts and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (HR 133), are the different ways states and the federal government have begun addressing the physician shortage.

Through our investigation, we learned the 2021 RPSRA is around the tenth Congressional attempt since 2007 to provide cap relief. Not only that, but each attempt was similar in nature: it is introduced with bipartisan support after a Congressional election year and, after a few news cycles later dies in a committee. The ten RPSRA iterations universally propose adding 15,000 residency slots over five...

Any institution making an effort to improve professional standards to promote inclusion and acceptance must provide proper training and education to faculty, leadership, and learners to ensure their understanding of updated professionalism standards should be specifically applied to discrimination, exclusion, and harassment of underrepresented persons. Ensuring this language is explicit and clearly...

America’s educational leaders have grown accustomed to supplementing classrooms with technological modules, interactive platforms, and other remote learning activities. Online learning in higher education has also flourished with the evolution of the internet; however, when it comes to undergraduate and graduate medical education, students had not experienced remote learning until COVID-19.

On December 27, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (HR 133) which provides legislation that is pertinent to academic medicine. In Germane Solutions’ core commitment to our clients and healthcare community, we are pleased to provide our guidance and understanding into these provisions as they currently stand.

While certainly not beginning the discussion, nor finishing it, previously this year multiple leaders in the healthcare field addressed racial inequalities and inequities.

Conflicts of Interests (COI) is a hotly debated issue within medical institutions, raising questions about how these issues could be addressed and policed. Even with this debate around COI, if one is identified within an institution, it could harshly affect their status, reputation, and responsibility. COI are secondary interests, such as financial gain, that are prioritized over primary interests...

Being a physician has always been a challenging profession, but the satisfaction and joy found in-patient care interactions formerly balanced the challenges. In the last 20-years, however, something has changed. Physicians have seen increases in demands for their time, resources, and energy to an overwhelming degree. In addition to poorly designed daily work systems, the failure of EMRs to support...

What does your physician pipeline look like right now? Are you prepared for unforeseen circumstances with physician staffing, such as an unexpected early retirement? If you are struggling with physician sourcing and ensuring that your hospital or system has the appropriate staffing resources to support your community in years to come, you are not alone. Institutions across the country are struggling...

One of the most crucial factors within your organization to begin the consideration of starting new GME programs is overall support. When exploring GME, certain individuals become the GME champions to spearhead the GME initiative. One of the most important factors this GME champion analyzes is the interest and excitement of physicians and staff within a given hospital and associated clinics. Without...

As a non-teaching hospital planning for new Graduate Medical Education (GME) growth, it is paramount to check for past teaching activity when determining the feasibility of GME residency and fellowship programs. Any teaching activity that has gone without notice on the hospital’s Medicare Cost Reports (MCRs) could adversely impact the future reimbursement opportunities of the organization. For instance,...

You noticed turnover or gaps in physician availability within your system. You heard one or more physician group representatives were interested in starting a residency or fellowship program to help with talent recruitment and retention. You’re interested, but don't know where to start exploring the option. The Initial Feasibility Assessment (IFA) is a process in which Germane Solutions works with...

Let’s first take a look at the acronym GME, which stands for Graduate Medical Education. GME is responsible for the oversight of training for all Residencies and Fellowships. This is mandatory training for physicians looking to practice medicine independently in the United States. The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is responsible for setting guidelines for programs to follow...

This is an almost unbelievable statement from the AMA’s “The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2018 to 2033” report. The Physician shortage is growing at an alarming rate, so let’s dig into specific factors contributing to this problem.