[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7048-S7049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mr. Blunt):
  S. 2107. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to help build 
a stronger health care workforce; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senator Blunt 
in the reintroduction of the Building a Health Care Workforce for the 
Future Act.
  According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2025, 
there will be a shortage of up to 90,000 physicians. Approximately 1/3 
of the shortage, up to 31,100 will be in primary care. Individuals and 
families living in underserved areas, urban and rural, will continue to 
be those most disadvantaged by this shortage.
  Last year, we expanded our health care system to provide health 
insurance to millions more Americans. In fact, recent studies have 
shown that the uninsured rate has decreased to the lowest level since 
1997 over the last 2 years. In Rhode Island, the uninsured rate 
decreased by half, down to 5 percent. As a result, millions of 
Americans are going to the doctor for preventive health care for the 
first time. In order for these efforts to be successful, we must expand 
our health care workforce to ensure that we have enough health care 
professionals to treat the newly insured.
  The Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act would 
authorize programs that would grow the overall number of health care 
providers, as well as encourage providers to pursue careers in 
geographic and practice areas of highest need.
  Building on the success of the National Health Service Corp, NHSC, 
Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, and the State Loan Repayment 
Program, this legislation would establish a state scholarship program. 
Like the NHSC State Loan Repayment Program, States would be able to 
receive a dollar-for-dollar match to support individuals that commit to 
practicing in the State in which the scholarship was issued after 
completing their education and training. At least 50 percent of the 
funding would be required to support individuals committed to pursuing 
careers in primary care. The States would have the flexibility to use 
the remaining 50 percent to support scholarships to educate students in 
other documented health care professional shortages in the state that 
are approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  The Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act would also 
authorize grants to medical schools to develop primary care mentors on 
faculty and in the community. According to the Association of American 
Medical Colleges, graduating medical students consistently state that 
role models are one of the most important factors affecting the career 
path they choose. Building a network of primary care mentors in the 
classroom and in a variety of practice settings will help guide more 
medical students into careers in primary care.
  The legislation would couple these mentorship grants with an 
initiative to improve the education and training offered by medical 
schools in competencies most critical to primary care, including 
patient-centered medical homes, primary and behavioral health 
integration, and team-based care.
  It would also direct the Institute of Medicine, IOM, to study and 
make recommendations about ways to limit the administrative burden on 
providers in documenting cognitive services delivered to patients. 
Primary care providers treat patients in need of these services almost 
exclusively, and as such, spend a significant percentage of their day 
documenting care. That is not the case for providers who perform 
procedures, like surgeries. This IOM study would help uncover ways to 
simplify documentation requirements, particularly for delivering 
cognitive services, in order to eliminate one of the potential factors 
that may discourage medical students from pursuing careers in primary 
care.
  Providers across the spectrum of care recognize that this bipartisan 
legislation is part of the solution to addressing the looming health 
care workforce shortage and have lent their support, including: the 
Alliance for Specialty Medicine, the American Association of Child and 
Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Association of Colleges of 
Osteopathic Medicine, the Association of Academic Health Centers, and 
the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[[Page S7049]]

  I look forward to working with these and other stakeholders as well 
as Senator Blunt and our colleagues to pass the Building a Health Care 
Workforce for the Future Act in order to help ensure patients have 
access to the health care they need.
                                 ______