Ohio officials look to change funding formula for primary care doc training

Ohio officials are calling for changes to the formula used to distribute tax dollars paid to hospitals for a physician training program aimed at improving the accessibility and quality of primary care in the state (Source: “Millions of dollars misdirected for graduate medical education; state pursues reform,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 6, 2015). 

The nearly $250 million in state funds that were spent in Ohio last year to help train young doctors were supposed to be equitably distributed among hospitals to ensure instruction in a variety of settings and specialties. But state records show millions of dollars was misdirected because of an outdated funding formula.

"It makes no sense at all," said Greg Moody, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation. "A pattern is present throughout the state where hospitals that are essentially providing the same sorts of training programs for medical education receive drastically different amounts."
 
Moody is spearheading a committee established by the state legislature to recommend ways to improve the funding system by the end of the year. He and other officials said the most obvious problem is a 28-year-old payment formula that is distributing money unfairly among the state's hospitals.