James September-October 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 66
graduates. Georgia should take note of
Florida’s funding methods obtaining
already available federal funding for
GME programs. Florida has succeeded, but Georgia has lagged.
Most folks will consider “Medicaid
expansion” when tapping into already
available federal and state combined
funds for physician training. We are not.
States that have not expanded Medicaid (like Florida and South Carolina)
extensively tap into Medicaid federal
funding for GME.
In 2022, Florida received $798
million ($35.87 million per capita) in
Medicaid GME dollars— a combination
of federal and state monies, and South
Carolina, half Georgia’s size, received
$297 million ($56.14 million per capita).
Meanwhile, Georgia’s combined state
and federal Medicaid GME funding
over this same time frame was $55
million ($5.04 million per capita). See
this graphically in the chart above.
In other words, Georgia uses this
already available funding mechanism
66
JAMES
State
SOUTH CAROLINA
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
Rank
4
9
37
GME Payments
$296.6 M
$797.9 M
$55 M
Population
5,282,955
22,245,521
10,913,150
Per Capita Investment
$56.14
$35.87
$5.04
Investment to Match
$557.4 M
$336.4 M
–
Filled GME Slots
per 100,000 in 2022
34.28
36.25
29.14
less robustly than other states. Those
states are embarrassingly outpacing
Georgia in physician training and
retention. However, like all other
states, Georgia has great flexibility in
using this funding, so Georgia must
immediately generate a strategic plan
to increase GME.
Georgia has a tremendous opportunity to invest wisely in GME like other
states, considering supply and demand
and bringing stakeholders together to
determine what kinds of physicians are
needed, where and how many.
SEPTE M B E R/O C TO BE R 2 0 2 4
This is not to say states like Florida are perfect. There is a physician
shortage nationwide. Researching best
practices and developing a path and a
plan for rescuing Georgians from being
among the lower quartile of states with
declining availability of healthcare physicians is priority one. There is no man,
woman or child in Georgia who is not
at the foot of healthcare. Georgia needs
a strong healthcare workforce, and the
time to build one is now.
Laurie Ott is the principal consultant at The
Georgia Higher Education Healthcare Initiative.
