The federal Teaching Health Center (THC) Graduate Medical Education (GME) program, which trains primary care doctors in outpatient clinics rather than hospitals, is facing financial uncertainty. The program, established under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, relies on congressional appropriations for funding and will run out of funds at the end of December unless lawmakers vote to replenish its coffers.
Dr. Diana Perez, a medical resident at the Family Health Center of Harlem, is one of the doctors being trained through this program. She has been based at this New York City health center for most of the past 3 years, providing care to underserved populations, including a homeless, West African immigrant with HIV and other chronic conditions.
Robert Schiller, MD, chief academic officer at the Institute for Family Health, which runs the Harlem THC program, believes that training primary care doctors in outpatient clinics is a no-brainer as “care is moving out into the community.”
However, due to the funding instability, several of the 82 THC programs nationwide recently put their residency training programs on hold or are phasing them out. This includes the DePaul Family and Social Medicine Residency Program in New Orleans East, an area that has been slow to recover after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
See: “Funding Instability Plagues Program That Brings Docs to Underserved Areas” (June 16, 2024)
