HHS could fund state pathways for internationally trained physicians

HHS may award grants to states for state-led alternative licensing pathways. The pathways cover physicians who graduated outside the United States or Canada and are permanent residents, refugees, people granted asylum, or otherwise authorized to work in the United States. States include the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. HHS chooses whether to award the grants. A state may allow practice under a fully licensed physician’s supervision and choose how long that practice lasts. The pathways apply while covered physicians complete steps 1, 2, and 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.

A specified resident at a qualifying hospital would not count toward Medicare’s graduate-medical-education cap on full-time-equivalent residents. The exclusion covers a resident in an approved hospital training program who meets the provision’s referenced definition of an eligible internationally trained physician. The hospital must have a training agreement with a federally qualified health center or rural hospital, be in a state that permits the supervised practice described above, and predominantly serve medically underserved people. Residents in the program must spend training time at the health center or rural hospital.

HHS must submit a report to Congress on the possibility of removing the resident cap. The report concerns Medicare’s graduate-medical-education cap on full-time-equivalent residents. HHS must submit the report no later than 180 days after enactment.

HHS may award states grants to help eligible international medical graduates complete the medical licensing examinations. The bill points to section 101 for who qualifies, although that section names the physician group differently. States include the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. HHS chooses whether to award the grants, and the listed forms of help are optional examples. The grants would support covered graduates while they complete steps 1, 2, and 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.