HR2106-119

What This Bill Does

The Expanding Medical Education Act adds Public Health Service Act section 749C. HHS may award grants to institutions of higher education and consortia to establish, improve, or expand schools of medicine, schools of osteopathic medicine, or branch campuses. Priority goes to proposals in areas where no such school is based, or where no minority-serving institution with such a school is based, if the area is medically underserved or a health professional shortage area, and to minority-serving institutions. Grant funds must be used to recruit, enroll, and retain medical students pursuing M.D. or D.O. degrees, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds, underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, rural and underserved areas, low-income backgrounds, and first-generation college students, and to develop curriculum emphasizing care for rural and underserved populations, including culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Funds may also support planning and construction, accreditation, faculty hiring including underrepresented faculty, educational programs, infrastructure modernization, and other expansion activities. Awardees must report annually, and HHS must report to Congress every five years on awardees, student enrollment and graduation, residency participation, demographic representation, fields and specialties, workforce effects, underserved-area access, recommendations, and other considerations, with public posting on the HHS website. Such sums as necessary are authorized.

Who Benefits and How

Medically underserved communities benefit because grants prioritize new or expanded medical schools and branch campuses in areas with provider shortages. Rural and underserved medical students benefit from recruitment, enrollment, and retention support. Minority-serving institutions benefit from priority eligibility and support for medical or osteopathic school expansion. Patients in health professional shortage areas benefit if new graduates enter residency and practice pathways serving underserved populations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

HHS must run the grant program, select priority recipients, review applications, and publish five-year congressional reports. Medical schools receiving grants must report annually and track student demographics, graduation, residency, and workforce outcomes. Institutions building branch campuses must manage accreditation, faculty hiring, infrastructure, budgets, and permanent independent locations. Federal taxpayers fund the grants authorized as such sums as necessary.

Key Provisions

• Creates HHS grants to establish, improve, or expand medical and osteopathic schools and branch campuses.
• Provides priority for underserved areas lacking schools, health professional shortage areas, and minority-serving institutions.
• Requires grant use for recruiting and retaining disadvantaged, rural, underserved, low-income, and first-generation medical students.
• Authorizes planning, construction, accreditation, faculty hiring, educational programs, and infrastructure modernization.
• Requires annual awardee reports and five-year public HHS reports to Congress on outcomes and workforce effects.