Citing a bottleneck created by the residency requirement for becoming a practicing physician, a recent article in Verywell Health takes an in-depth look at Medicare’s role in funding residency positions.

Verywell notes that 85% of overall funding for residency slots is provided by Medicare. The publication suggests an expansion on Medicare’s residency coverage cap as one potential solution to address the bottleneck — thus adding more physicians to practice at a time when the physician shortage in the U.S. is increasing.

This solution to the physician shortage is just one of many that, working together, could move the needle on the U.S. physician count. Physician Retraining & Reentry (PRR), which is doing its part to address the shortage by retraining and returning physicians to practice as primary care physicians, welcomes all potential solutions being offered by the government and the health care, education and insurance industries.