Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation with my colleague Senator Casey that would reauthorize the only federally funded programs that are specifically designed to develop a health provider workforce to care for our older Americans. The Geriatrics Workforce Improvement Act would reauthorize the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program and also reinstate the Geriatrics Academic Career Award Program.

The number of Americans aged 65 and older is growing rapidly. In my State of Maine, we are reaching an aging milestone faster than are other States. By 2020, the number of Maine seniors is projected to exceed the number of Maine children. This is 15 years ahead of the nationally projected date of 2035, at which point the number of Americans aged 65 and older will outnumber those under the age of 18 for the first time in our Nation's history.

The United States is facing a critical shortage of geriatric health professionals and direct service workers to support our aging population. Today, we need 20,000 geriatricians. However, fewer than 7,300 of our Nation's nearly 1 million physicians are board certified as geriatricians. By 2030, we will need 30,000 geriatricians and even more geriatric health professionals and direct service workers. To achieve this goal, we will need to train 1,600 geriatric specialists per year over the next 12 years.

For the State of Maine, with an aging population of more than a quarter million Mainers over the age of 65 and with only 40 geriatricians, there is an acute need to quickly train more geriatric health professionals and direct service workers to meet the growing demand. The University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine has joined the University of Maine this year in proposing the ``Aging Maine Transformation Collaborative.'' I was pleased to lend my support to this collaboration earlier this year. If funded, AgingME would become our State's first Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program and would bring with it much needed assistance to communities and families throughout our State.

Nationwide, our bill would reauthorize this workforce enhancement program at $45 million per year over the next 5 years and would reinstate the Geriatrics Academic Career Award Program at $6 million per year. Together, these programs would train the current workforce and family caregivers while simultaneously developing a cadre of emerging leaders in geriatric education in a variety of disciplines. By doing both, we will ensure that older Americans will be cared for, for decades to come, by a healthcare workforce that will be specifically trained to meet their unique and complex healthcare challenges. This training of using the most efficient and effective methods for older adults will result in improved care while reducing unnecessary costs.

I am pleased to say that our legislation is supported by the leading organizations in gerontology and geriatrics, including the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, the American Geriatrics Society, the Alzheimer's Impact Movement, and the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers.

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By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Jones, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Manchin, and Ms. Harris):

S. 304. A bill to reauthorize section 340H of the Public Health Service Act to continue to encourage the expansion, maintenance, and the establishment of approved graduate medical residency programs at qualified teaching health centers, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation with my colleague from Montana, Senator Tester, to fund Teaching Health Centers, a time-tested model for success to train the next generation of primary care doctors in communities where they are needed the most. I am pleased that Senators Capito, Jones, Boozman, Manchin, and Harris have joined us as cosponsors.

Over the next decade, the severe shortage of primary care doctors could reach crisis levels in a growing number of rural and underserved communities in Maine and across our Nation. Alarmingly, these communities are often those hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. By 2030, we will need an estimated 120,000 physicians to meet the growing demand for health care services across the Country. In clinics and health centers in Northern Maine, I frequently hear stories about vacancies forcing Mainers to travel many miles simply to see a primary care doctor or dentist.

For the past eight years, one program, the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education Program, has worked to fill these gaps. This program trains medical residents in community-based settings, including low-income, underserved rural and urban neighborhoods. For example, since its inception in 2011, the Penobscot Community Health Care Center has trained 34 residents and served more than 15,000 dental patients in Bangor, Maine.

Nationwide, this program has produced real results. Since the program began, 632 new primary care physicians and dentists have graduated and entered the workforce, and the number of Americans served is in the millions. Those who train at teaching health centers are very likely to practice primary care and remain in underserved or rural communities. Last Congress, this Committee considered and successfully passed my legislation to fund teaching health centers for two years. As a result, for the 2017-2018 academic year, this program supported the training of 732 residents in 57 primary care residency programs, across 24 states.

The legislation I have introduced today would reauthorize the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education Program for five years and provide additional funding for expansion and the creation of new programs. This bill is widely supported by leading community health and physician organizations, including the American Association of Teaching Health Centers, National Association of Community Health Centers, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, and Council of Academic Family Medicine.

In the face of nationwide physician shortages, our legislation would provide a solution for communities today and a path forward to train the physicians of tomorrow. I urge all of my colleagues to join in support of this important legislation, the Training the Next Generation of Primary Care Doctors Act of 2019.

Mr. President, I ask to include these letters into the Record.

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