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.

 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.