The Primary Care Team Education Centers Act would create a new federal grant program within the Public Health Service Act to support the establishment and expansion of primary care team education centers. The Secretary of Health and Human Services could award grants of up to $1 million per year for as long as five years to eligible entities, including certain health care organizations and institutions connected to health professions training. The bill’s stated goals are to strengthen community-based ambulatory care sites as training locations, expand the pipeline of health professionals, and improve access to primary care by giving more students clinical experience in multidisciplinary settings.
Grant funds could be used to build partnerships with higher education institutions and health care organizations, address shortages of clinical faculty, sites, and preceptors, and support student training in primary care. The bill specifically encourages innovative employment, appointment, and compensation models for preceptors, including possible salary support, and allows funds for student housing or transportation during clinical rotations. It also directs grantees to integrate roles for health workers not traditionally part of primary care teams, such as school nurses and community health workers, and to promote career advancement for health professionals employed by the centers.
The bill would amend the Public Health Service Act to add this new grant authority and would also bar recipients of the new grants from receiving certain other federal teaching health center development grants or graduate medical education teaching health center payments. It authorizes appropriations of $10 million for fiscal year 2027, $25 million for 2028, $50 million for 2029, and such sums as necessary thereafter. The Secretary would also be required to provide technical assistance and submit annual reports to Congress on grant awards, student participation, preceptor participation, and how grantees met workforce needs.
Overall, the bill appears aimed at expanding the primary care workforce pipeline and strengthening community-based training infrastructure, and the available context shows no recorded committee debate or votes. Because there are no transcripts or vote totals, there is no documented opposition or support in the provided materials, but the structure of the bill suggests likely interest from health workforce advocates, medical educators, nursing groups, and community health organizations. Potential areas of concern could include the new federal spending, the administrative burden of reporting, and the eligibility restrictions that prevent recipients from also receiving certain other federal training funds.
The bill would amend the Public Health Service Act by creating a new section authorizing HHS to fund primary care team education centers and by adding cross-references that make recipients of these new grants ineligible for certain existing teaching health center programs. It would affect eligible health care organizations, schools, and training sites that partner to provide clinical education, as well as health professional students, preceptors, nurses, advanced practice nurses, school nurses, and community health workers. It also establishes new reporting and technical assistance requirements and authorizes new federal appropriations for the program.
The provided record shows the bill was introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, but there are no committee transcripts or votes available. Based on the bill text alone, the measure is framed positively as a workforce and access-to-care initiative, with emphasis on training, recruitment, retention, and support for primary care educators and students. No explicit support or opposition is documented in the materials provided.
There is no recorded debate in the supplied context, so no specific objections are attributable to any member or stakeholder. Likely points of contention, based on the bill’s design, include the level of federal funding, whether the grant program duplicates or competes with existing teaching health center programs, the exclusion of grant recipients from other federal training payments, and the administrative requirements tied to annual reporting and technical assistance. Another possible issue is how the bill prioritizes applicants that address workforce shortages and disadvantaged-background recruitment, which may raise questions about implementation and selection criteria.