"The Funding Issue" if Changing Specialties AFTER completing a Residency

[rs2006]

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well for everyone in the forum. At the end of this month, I will have completed my residency and am considering a career change to another specialty that would necessitate doing another entire residency. Given this, I have been told that there is a "Medicare funding issue" that could potentially limit my chances of doing this other specialty. I would like to know if there is any way around this issue as I have seen other docs who have also completed multiple residencies. I would be grateful for any advice. Thanks in advance.

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[opencomedo]

I'm no expert but from what I have heard the deck is stacked against you... I know that getting funding wasnt a issue several years ago, but now you are only funded for the length of time required to complete training in your initial specialty. This is an issue for people that will switch from IM to a specialty like Rads or Anesthesia (as they would need more years of funding than they initiallly "signed on" for doing IM). To my knowledge there is no way around this obstacle, however I know that programs do sometimes accept people in spite of it (though they are likely funding the resident with departmental funds). Good luck

 

[Winged Scapula]

In terms of "getting around it", the answer is no.

You received your allotted years of CMS funding. Any further training will take place with reduced funding (there are several threads which detail this more thoroughly). 2nd residencies are funded the same way that fellowships are: 50% of DME (that's salary and benefit support) and 100% of IME (everything else it costs to train a resident at the institutional level).

Programs have to be willing to take you with the reduced funding. If you are a superstar, you probably won't have a problem. If you are looking at a competitive specialty without a very impressive CV, programs may be somewhat loathe to take you with reduced funding.