Controversy over federal funding for medical training

In an NPR story, some professional societies and associations expressed concern over an influential new report from the Insitute of Medicine that calls for more accountability in the distribution of funding for medical graduate education. In addition to accountability changes, the report also called for an end to providing the money directly to the teaching hospitals and to dramatically alter the way the funds are paid.

"We recognize we are causing some disruption," said Gail Wilensky, a health economist and co-leader of the panel that produced the report. "But we think we are doing so in a thoughtful and careful way," including recommending phasing in the payment changes over 10 years.