Valued Voice

For hospitals and health systems seeking to expand training opportunities in high-demand occupations, the time to apply for WHA-created grants is now. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is entering the next round of funding for two WHA-crafted training grant programs. Applications are now available for Graduate Medical Education (GME) expansion grants, and a second-round of 2023 allied health training grant applications will open soon.
 
The allied health grant program is benefiting from enhancements advocated for by WHA, advanced by the Joint Committee on Finance as part of the 2023-2025 biennial budget, passed by the Wisconsin Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers as Wisconsin 2023 Act 19. The GME expansion grants also got a boost in funding in the biennial budget.
 
The Wisconsin State Budget added $2.5 million in FY24 and $2.5 million in FY25 for allied health training grants. The state budget also adds nearly $2 million to the GME expansion grant program. DHS has successfully implemented this grant program and last week announced that grant funding will increase from $75,000 per resident position to $150,000 per position, which translates to a maximum of $180,462 per residency slot in the hospital inpatient state plan.  
 
Not only will the increased funding provide opportunities for more hospitals and health systems to join with their partners in education to grow the health care workforce, but the allied health training grants have also been expanded to now include registered nurses. And although applicants serving rural areas are given preference for allied health training grants, with $5 million in funding over the biennium hospitals and health systems in urban and suburban areas are also encouraged to apply.  
 
GME grants, based on WHA’s 86% equation, are used to create new GME programs or expand residency slots in existing programs. These grants were implemented by DHS in 2013 and were so successful that in 2017 grant programs modelled after the GME grants were created for advanced practice clinicians and allied health professionals.



To date, these matching grant programs spearheaded by WHA have spurred more than $56 million invested in new or expanded training programs for in-demand health care professions. DHS has already awarded 89 total GME, allied health and advanced practice clinician training grants. Wisconsin has grown 149 more GME residency slots and when that pipeline is full there will be an additional 54 physicians each and every year for our state. Allied health grants are creating new and expanded training programs for certified medical assistants, surgical technicians, counselors-in-training, clinical social workers, laboratorians, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and radiographers.
 
Allied Health Training grant applications will open soon.
 
Grant applications are open for GME expansion grants here. Applications are due by noon Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023.
 
Contact WHA Senior Vice President of Workforce and Clinical Practice Ann Zenk if you have questions about Grow Your Own grants or any other health care workforce issue.