ADDRESSING A STATES PHYSICIAN WORKFORCE PRIORITIES THROUGH THE FUNDING OF GRADUATE MEDICAL-EDUCATION - THE TENNCARE MODEL

TennCare is Tennessee's innovative program that replaces the state's M edicaid program with a health care system based on managed care and de signed to cover the vast majority of the state's poor and uninsured. T he program provides health care benefits not only to those eligible fo r Medicaid, but also to the uninsured poor who do not qualify for Medi caid and those who are uninsurable because of existing medical conditi ons, This article describes the allocation of TennCare graduate medica l education funding, which is designed to address the state's physicia n workforce priorities regarding specialty mix and practice location. Under the new TennCare graduate medical education funding design, fund s flow to the state's 4 medical schools and then to the sites of the r esidents' training. Allocation to the medical schools is based primari ly on the number of primary care residents in residency programs under sponsorship of each.