Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Locations Predominantly Located in Federally Designated Underserved Areas

ABSTRACTBackground The Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program is an Affordable Care Act funding initiative designed to expand primary care residency training in community-based ambulatory settings. Statute suggests, but does not require, training in underserved settings. Residents who train in underserved settings are more likely to go on to practice in similar settings, and graduates more often than not practice near where they have trained.Objective The objective of this study was to describe and quantify federally designated clinical continuity training sites of the THCGME program.Methods Geographic locations of the training sites were collected and characterized as Health Professional Shortage Area, Medically Underserved Area, Population, or rural areas, and were compared with the distribution of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)–funded training positions.Results More than half of the teaching health centers (57) are located in states that are in the 4 quintiles with the lowest CMS-funded resident-to-population ratio. Of the 109 training sites identified, more than 70 are located in federally designated high-need areas.Conclusions The THCGME program is a model that funds residency training in community-based ambulatory settings. Statute suggests, but does not explicitly require, that training take place in underserved settings. Because the majority of the 109 clinical training sites of the 60 funded programs in 2014–2015 are located in federally designated underserved locations, the THCGME program deserves further study as a model to improve primary care distribution into high-need communities.