Bill > S3201

This bill, the Graduate Medical Education Reform Act of 2012, aims to reform how Medicare pays teaching hospitals for graduate medical education (GME) costs, specifically indirect GME costs, starting in fiscal year 2017. Indirect GME payments are a way Medicare compensates teaching hospitals for the higher costs associated with training medical residents. The bill directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and implement procedures that will adjust these payments based on a hospital's performance on specific measures of patient care priorities. These measures, which must be adopted or endorsed by an accrediting organization and developed through a consensus-based process, will include training in areas such as evaluation and management codes (used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, to categorize services), care in various settings, care coordination, cost-effectiveness of treatments, teamwork, error identification, and the use of health information technology. The bill also mandates that starting in fiscal year 2017, hospitals will face a reduction in payments if they fail to report on these measures, and beginning in fiscal year 2018, payments can be adjusted by up to 3% based on their performance, with the overall payment amounts remaining budget-neutral. Additionally, the bill requires the Secretary to report to Congress and the National Health Care Workforce Commission annually on graduate medical education payments received by hospitals, including details on direct and indirect GME payments, resident counts, and factors contributing to higher patient care costs.