About the Council
The Council on
Graduate Medical Education (COGME) was authorized by Congress in 1986
to provide an ongoing assessment of physician workforce trends, training
issues and financing policies, and to recommend appropriate federal
and private sector efforts to address identified needs. The legislation
calls for COGME to advise and make recommendations to the Secretary
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the House
of Representatives Committee on Commerce. The Health Professions Education
Partnerships Act of 1998 reauthorized the Council through September
30, 2002. Since then, the Council has been extended through successive
annual appropriations governing the Department of Health and Human
Services.
The legislation specifies
17 members for the Council. Appointed individuals are to include representatives
of practicing primary care physicians, national and specialty physician
organizations, international medical graduates, medical student and
house staff associations, schools of medicine and osteopathy, public
and private teaching hospitals, health insurers, business, and labor.
Federal representation includes the Assistant Secretary for Health,
HHS; the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services, HHS; and the Chief Medical Director of the Veterans Administration.
Charge
to the Council
The charge to
COGME is broader than the name would imply. Title VII of the Public
Health Service Act, as amended, requires COGME to provide advice and
recommendations to the HHS Secretary and Congress on the following
issues:
- The supply and distribution
of physicians in the United States.
- Current and future shortages
or excesses of physicians in medical and surgical specialties and
subspecialties.
- Issues relating to international
medical school graduates.
- Appropriate federal
policies with respect to the matters specified in items 1-3, including
policies concerning changes in the financing of undergraduate and
graduate medical education (GME) programs and changes in the types
of medical education training in GME programs.
- Appropriate efforts
to be carried out by hospitals, schools of medicine, schools of
osteopathy, and accrediting bodies with respect to the matters specified
in items 1-3, including efforts for changes in undergraduate and
GME programs.
- Deficiencies and needs
for improvements in data bases concerning the supply and distribution
of, and postgraduate training programs for, physicians in the United
States and steps that should be taken to eliminate those deficiencies.
The Council is to encourage entities providing
graduate medical education to conduct activities to voluntarily
achieve the recommendations of the Council specified in item 5.
COGME
Charter
For further information:
Contact Jerald
M. Katzoff,
Executive Secretary, Council on Graduate Medical Education
Division of Medicine and Dentistry
Bureau of Health Professions
Health Resources & Services Administration
U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 9A-21
Rockville, MD 20857
Voice: (301) 443-6785
FAX: (301) 443-8890
