ON MAY 4, 2021, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 298, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #2 rewrites this bill to require the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, in cooperation with the department of health and THEC, to administer residency opportunities focusing on family practice, general pediatrics, primary care medicine-pediatrics, and psychiatry to provide medical and behavioral health services in medically underserved areas and rural counties, distributed across all three grand divisions. This amendment authorizes the universities administering the residencies to contract with other accredited medical schools and sponsoring institutions of residency programs approved by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to provide doctor of medicine resident training opportunities. The resident training opportunities administered by the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine:
(1) Must be open to all qualified candidates and filled through the existing matching process used for graduate medical education;
(2) Must make maximum feasible use of non-state funds from the federal government, private sources, and fees for services in a manner that is consistent with accreditation standards when developing and implementing the additional resident training opportunities; and
(3) Are not eligible for graduate medical education funds distributed by the bureau of TennCare.
In addition to the residencies that will be administered by the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, and subject to specific appropriation of funds by the general assembly, this amendment creates a resident training program to provide resident training opportunities for physicians focusing on family medicine and general internal medicine to provide medical and behavioral health services in medically underserved areas and rural counties, distributed across all three grand divisions of this state. The program will be administered by Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), in cooperation with the department of health and THEC. This amendment authorizes LMU to contract with other accredited medical schools and sponsoring institutions of residency programs approved by the ACGME to provide physician resident training opportunities. The resident training opportunities administered by LMU:
(1) Must use ACGME-accredited, family medicine or general internal medicine residency programs with institutional sponsors that are either local community hospitals or community health systems;
(2) Shall not use residency programs with institutional sponsors that are universities or medical schools;
(3) Must be open to all qualified candidates and filled using the matching process used for graduate medical education that exists on July 1, 2021;
(4) Must make maximum feasible use of non-state funds from the federal government, private sources, and fees for services in a manner that is consistent with accreditation standards when developing and implementing the additional resident training opportunities created by this section; and
(5) Are not eligible for graduate medical education funds distributed by the bureau of TennCare.
This amendment expresses the legislative intent that of the state funds appropriated to implement this bill during the 2021-2022 state fiscal year:
(1) $4,000,000 be allocated for the implementation of the resident training opportunities administered by the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine; and
(2) $1,500,000 be allocated for the implementation of the resident training opportunities administered by LMU.

Statutes affected:
Current Version: 7-90-112(f)(3), 7-90-112
Amended with SA0448 -- 05/04/2021: 7-90-112(f)(3), 7-90-112, 49-9-703