Representative/Senator

DATE

Representative/Senator

Office Address

United States Senate

City, State, Zip

Dear Representative/Senator ______:

As a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), and as your constituent, I ask that you cosponsor the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (H.R. 2124/S. 1148). This legislation would prevent a looming doctor shortage by phasing in a total of 15,000 new graduate medical education (GME) residency slots (3,000 per year over 5 years) for teaching hospitals, so that these hospitals can continue to train recent medical school graduates.

I also ask that you support theTraining Tomorrow’s Doctors Today Act (H.R. 4774). Although similar to H.R. 2124/S. 1148in that the bill increases the number of direct graduate medical education slots, the Act also directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work with medical education stakeholders to establish patient care performance standards that measure the extent of training. In addition, the legislation establishes GME performance standards and implements reporting of measuresto increase GME transparency.

As our population grows older, the demand for physician and other health care services will only continue to increase. However, the U.S. is facing a shortage of 90,000 primary care and specialty physicians by 2025, and almost half of the states are already reporting a physician workforce shortage. Medical schools have responded by increasing enrollment, yet many of these graduates are unable to continue their required training in residency, due to a federally-mandated limit on the number of residency slots supported by Medicare. The result is not just a shortage, but a bottleneck of qualified potential doctors.

As the leading voice in the sleep medicine field, representing a combined membership of 11,000 physicians, researchers, healthcare professionals, and accredited sleep centers, the AASM strongly supports these bills.

Teaching hospitals and academic medical centers rely on support from Medicare’s GME program to fulfill their mission of training physicians for the public good, furnishing highly-specialized care to the most medically complex patients, and delivering essential health care services to the community. Training our nation’s doctors has long been a shared responsibility between medical schools, teaching hospitals, and the federal programs that support these efforts. Yet, the outdated cap on residency slots supported by the federal government puts at risk the continued success of these efforts, and it limits our nation’s ability to address the doctor shortage.

The AASM recently released a new analysis, “Hidden health crisis costing America billions,” which reveals the staggering cost of undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A companion report, “In an age of constant activity, the solution to improving the nation's health may lie in helping it sleep better,” summarizes the results of an online survey completed by patients currently being treated for OSA. Both reports were commissioned by the AASM and prepared by the global research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

OSA is a chronic disease that is rising in prevalence in the U.S. The analysis estimates that approximately 5.9 million U.S.adults are diagnosed with OSA, but 23.5 million remain undiagnosed. The analysis also calculated that diagnosing and treating every patient in the U.S. who has sleep apnea would produce an annual economic savings of $100.1 billion.

Adding 15,000 new GME residency slots and establishing performance standards will allow bright, talented young physicians to enter the sleep field so that they can help identify, diagnose and treat individuals who have a sleep disease.

Congress needs to act to increase the number of available residency slots and establish GME performance and reporting measures. By passing the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act and the Training Tomorrow’s Doctors Today Act, we will be able to continue our nation’s tradition of training the world’s best and brightest physicians.

The AASM has been privileged to work with many esteemed members of the U.S. legislature in the past, and we look forward to working with you on this important matter. For further information or a discussion on the resolution, please contact Ted Thurn, AASM Senior Health Policy and Government Affairs Analyst, at or (630) 737-9700.

I thank you for your steadfast work to empower physician voices on Capitol Hill.

Sincerely,

Name