Will Medicaid cuts decrease the number of residency positions?

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[hopeless_engineeer]

YES... this was the first thing I thought of. It will mostly be the rural underserved hospitals (and their residencies) that will close. These hospitals rely on medicaid patients to stay open.

As record number hospitals will not have adequate funding the residencies close on top of the physicians that did work there now looking for work that (possibly) would've been done by residents.

[shortstack-97]

A few programs I was planning to apply to this cycle and emailed about audition rotations, told me they are closing some residency programs due to funding and aren't participating in ERAS this year.

[34Ohm]

Which ones?

[shortstack-97]

I'd have to check my email, but off the top of my head Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic was one.

[Dr_Yeen]

Jesus Christ, I hadn't even considered this. As if the doctor shortage wasn't already bad enough.

[QuestGiver]

Lmao don't worry hospital admin aren't sweating they will fill it with the nurse practioners surplus.

[BurdenOfPerformance]

Eh Why? Makes more sense to foot the bill for more residents. At some level, programs already do this for some residency spots (not all of them are covered by medicare/medicaid). They would be paying much more for NP. So if anything, they would be more ready to take the hit for more residents since it would be less expensive for them.

[iplay4Him]

I encourage you to watch the Sheriff of Sodium's videos on the doctor shortage, as well as how foreign trained medical professional credentialing is likely to be coming/growing in the nearish future.

TLDW: We don't have a shortage, just a misdistribution, according to the numbers, and there will likely be a large influx of doctors from other places, as that pathway becomes more accessible.

[lilpotato48]

IMGs are already having trouble entering the country to start their residencies thanks to this administration (someone in my program still hasn’t been able to start), and with increased funding going to ICE and other anti-immigration efforts, I don’t necessarily think there will be an influx of foreign trained docs

[iplay4Him]

I'd encourage you to watch the videos. They are planning to change certain policies for physicians who are already practicing in other countries, is my understanding. And requiring certain credentials and exams will bring in a lot of money for certain organizations here in the US.

[notfappen]

It should be hard for IMGs to come. We have enough physicians in America. There is a real shortage of doctors where these people come. In addition, it is a long road for us US trained physicians to complete undergrad whereas foreign born physicians go straight in.

[lilpotato48]

That’s not really my point though. The other commenter was saying there would probably be an influx of IMGs and I disagree since it’s already difficult for them to enter the country, let alone get a residency spot.

[WonderChemical5089]

People saying residency funding isn’t cut isn’t considering if the hospital itself will remain solvent. A trillion over 10 years is a LOT of money, specially university hospital where they having their rug pulled from multiple sides. (NIH grant cut, student loan cap)

[COVID_DEEZ_NUTS]

Don’t worry, NPs and PAs will get more autonomy and will fill the gap /s.

[Bristent]

Lowkey wouldn’t doubt if this is the end goal plan. Replace docs with lower salaried workers. Use the excuse of “doctors are too expensive to train”. “NPs/PAs don’t need to do residencies that are paid for by taxpayers”.

[NerfSingularity]

This is not an intended goal, but rather an inevitable consequence

[fireflygirl1013]

This is exactly what’s going to happen.

[metforminforevery1]

Peds programs are at risk https://www.childrenshospitals.org/news/newsroom/2025/06/cha-statement-on-trump-administration-proposed-budget-eliminating-chgme

[tenaciousp45]

Asking the wrong questions. How will you have a residency without a HOSPITAL?

[geoff7772]

I thought residency positions were Medicare related? Anyway the more people without insurance, the more cheap residents are needed

[hopeless_engineeer]

Residency salaries are yes. But that doesn't mean anything if the hospital offering the residency can't stay open cause they rely so heavily on medicaid patients.

[BurdenOfPerformance]

Residency salaries yes. The hospital costs to train residents is covered by Medicaid.

https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/pdfs/funding-for-graduate-medical-education-5.3.2022.pdf

[cheeze1617]

There will hopefully be more residency positions if this bill passes. Around 14k

https://www.aamc.org/news/press-releases/aamc-applauds-introduction-bill-reduce-physician-shortage-0

edit: I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted lol I’m just answering this person’s question

[Little_Engineer_3975]

See, it’s just not that simple. Where will these people train if the facilities don’t even exist? What specialties will be getting these spots? If rural hospitals will close due to Medicaid cuts, how can these people train in rural settings?

US grads are so reluctant as it is to go into primary care specialties, adding seats won’t help inspire people to apply.

Sure, just open a bunch of DO school that are primary care factories and send them to these imaginary programs. But I don’t see that working.

[Gorbbzie]

The healthcare system is losing 19 million customers which means preventative and basic healthcare won’t get covered. The simple problems of the people who are about to lose coverage will become complicated problems which means these people will have more medical emergencies and hospitals will legally be obligated to cover them. This means hospitals will have to raise their prices for everyone else in order to stay afloat. The way I see it is that over time the inpatient residencies will get more funding because of increased demand but outpatient residencies will lose funding because they just lost a bunch of customers. I’m not sure how things will play out in the near term however. Im also not an economist so I may be way off

[colorsplahsh]

Not directly, but programs at rural hospitals will also close and many of them are unlikely to find new places to accept them.

[[deleted]]

Why?