HJAR Jan/Feb 2025

effort with a commitment of $12.5 million in 2020 and has committed to additional fund- ing to help theWRMC - and other similarly situated hospitals - to undertake this pro- cess. Once implemented, the wage reclassi- fication process must be completed within five years. To date, WRMC has established 50 residency positions and will apply to the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education once funding is made available for the 26 additional residency slots under federal rules. While the region is off to a good start, more work is needed to expand residency programs as more Arkansas medical stu- dents graduate each year than available residency spots. Increasing the number of residencies will help retain medical grad- uates in Northwest Arkansas, expand the local healthcare workforce, and prepare for the region’s population growth. Each resi- dency position generates $715k in economic impact annually. TheWRMC program, once fully implemented, will generate over $54M in annual economic impact to the state. Each new physician in the state will create, on average, 17.1 jobs and add $2.4 million to the local economy. GME grew from 55 residents and fel- lows in training in the region in 2018 to 74 in 2023, a 35% increase. Plans are under- way in the area to significantly increase resi- dency programs, bringing the total number of residents in training to 155, representing an increase of 182% over 12 years (see Table 3). While impressive, more efforts are needed to ensure the region reaches its goal of 200 additional residency positions by 2040. WRMC completed a geographic wage reclassification, allowing fresh federal dollars for residency programs to flow into the hospital over five years. However, since Mercy and Northwest Health Springdale are both currently capped, it will be imper- ative that a state/regional funding source be identified to continue investing in GME expansion to meet the 200-resident goal. Additional strategies may include resetting low CMS caps, changing rural payment des- ignation, and ensuring that all future hospi- tals have a unique provider number. HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  JAN / FEB 2025 23