[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S4283]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mr. Blunt):
  S. 3095. 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 reintroducing the Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future 
Act.
  According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2030, 
there will be a shortage of up to 120,000 physicians. Over one third of 
the shortage, up to 49,300, 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.
  The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 ushered in an 
expansion of access to health insurance for millions of Americans. 
While we fight to protect these gains and work to improve the system 
further, many Americans are going to the doctor for preventive health 
care for the first time. In order for this to be successful, we must 
expand our health care workforce to ensure that we have enough health 
care professionals to seamlessly accommodate the newly insured as they 
join the ranks of those who already have coverage. In addition, as the 
baby boomers age, we will need health care professionals to care for 
them as well. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly 10,000 baby 
boomers will become eligible for Medicare every day through 2030.
  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 Program and the State Loan Repayment 
Program, our 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 fund scholarships to educate students in 
other health care professions with documented shortages with the 
approval of 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 say that one 
of the most important factors affecting the career path they choose is 
role models. Building a network of primary care mentors in the 
classroom and in a variety of clinical 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, such as 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 American Association for Marriage and Family 
Therapy, the American Osteopathic Association, the Association of 
American Medical Colleges, and the Society of General Internal 
Medicine.
  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.

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