Health Care Workforce: Federally Funded Training Programs in Fiscal Year 2012

Abstract

A well-trained and diverse health care workforce is essential for providing Americans with access to quality health care services. As part of ensuring a sufficient supply of physicians, nurses, dentists, and other direct care health professionals for the nation, the federal government supports health care workforce training through various efforts.1 These efforts include federal programs that directly train health professionals, award grants or make payments to institutions training health professionals, and provide financial assistance to health professional students through stipends, scholarships, loans, or loan reimbursement. For example, titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) authorize multiple grant and financial assistance programs in order to increase the supply, diversity, and geographic distribution of primary care providers and nurses.2 In addition, primarily through Medicare payments to teaching hospitals, the federal government is also the largest supporter of graduate medical education (GME)postgraduate residency training programs for physicians and others. More recently, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) reauthorized many of the existing PHSA workforce training programs as well as established several new programs aimed at improving and diversifying the health care workforce.3 To better understand the scope of the federal governments role in health care workforce training, you asked us to provide information on federally funded health care workforce training programs. This report identifies federal programs that supported postsecondary training and education for direct care health professionals in fiscal year 2012, including information about program purpose, funding, and targeted health professionals.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 15, 2013
Accession Number
AD1177467

Entities

People

  • Jennifer Whitworth
  • Krister Friday
  • Linda T. Kohn
  • Martin T. Gahart
  • Rebecca Abela

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Family Medicine
  • Federal Budgets
  • Health Care
  • Health Care Facilities
  • Health Services
  • Hospitals
  • Hygiene
  • Law
  • Medical Personnel
  • Medical Specialties
  • Military Medicine
  • Minority Groups
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Physicians
  • Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Students
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Political science

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • STEM Education