HHS Awards Start-Up Funds for Community-Based Health Care Providers to Develop Programs to Train Medical and Dental Residents in Community Settings

HRSA is awarding nearly $23 million to 46 grantees to plan and develop new Teaching Health Center primary care residency training programs in community-based settings.  

HRSA Administrator Johnson also visited a grantee today in Central New Jersey with Congressman Frank Pallone to discuss today’s awards. 

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), awarded nearly $23 million to 46 grantees to plan and develop Teaching Health Center residency programs in community-based settings. While the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) Program has existed for over a decade, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first to invest in the startup costs of planning and developing new Teaching Health Center primary care residency programs. The President’s FY 2024 budget request also seeks to expand this successful program.

While most residency programs are based in hospitals, Teaching Health Center programs prioritize training residents in community-based outpatient settings, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) or community mental health centers, which primarily serve people in rural and high-need areas. These programs are designed to focus training in the settings and among patients where primary care clinicians practice. Today’s funding announcement will support community-based care providers who want to build primary care residency training programs but haven’t had the resources to develop and start a program that will effectively train physicians and dentists to practice in community settings. 

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable health care – and that starts with having a strong health care workforce,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We are working hard to invest in the next generation of providers and expand access to care, especially in rural and high-need areas.” 

“At the Health Resources and Services Administration, growing the health care workforce is a top priority,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “The funding we are awarding today will allow community-based providers to build a physician workforce that better reflects the community and is best trained to meet the community’s needs.” 

The Teaching Health Center Planning and Development Program supports the planning and establishment of residency training programs in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine-pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and geriatrics. These planning grants will support the work of building a program, developing a training curriculum, recruiting clinical faculty, retooling workflow to integrate residents, and getting accredited, all of which are time-consuming, and require resources and staffing.  

Grantees will be better prepared to apply for future HRSA Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) Program funding rounds with the work of a planning and development grant to guide their efforts. THCGME-funded programs support and train residents in community-based settings. 

See a list of the FY 2023 Teaching Health Center Planning and Development Program award recipients: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/teaching-health-center-planning-development-awards.

Also today, Administrator Johnson visited the Visiting Nurses Association of Central New Jersey, one of today’s grantees, with Congressman Frank Pallone, Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to make this announcement and discuss what the funding means for the community.