Primary-care training bill

Sen. Tim Kaine introduced a bill this week to create and expand training centers for primary-care workers, aiming to steer more clinicians into underserved communities. (wsls.com) Kaine’s proposal is called the Primary Care Team Education Centers Act, and his office said he introduced it on April 22, 2026 as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The bill would support education and clinical training for the “next generation” of primary-care professionals. (ebs.publicnow.com) The bill text says the Health and Human Services secretary could award grants for up to five years, with a maximum of $1 million a year for each grant. Those grants would go to eligible entities that establish or expand primary care team education centers. (congress.gov) Those centers would be built around community-based outpatient sites, not just classroom instruction. The bill says funds could be used to develop partnerships with colleges and health care organizations and to address shortages of clinical faculty, training sites, and preceptors — the experienced clinicians who supervise students in practice settings. (congress.gov) The measure targets a bottleneck in health training: students need real clinic placements to finish their education, and those placements are limited in many rural and low-income areas. Kaine’s office said the bill would also prioritize grants tied to health professional shortage areas and preceptor advancement. (ebs.publicnow.com) Federal data show the shortage is already broad. The Health Resources and Services Administration says about 20% of the U.S. population lives in primary medical care Health Professional Shortage Areas, which are used by more than 34 federal programs to determine eligibility or funding preference. (data.hrsa.gov) The Association of American Medical Colleges says the United States could face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, and it lists 7,488 primary-care shortage areas affecting nearly 74 million people. The group says underserved communities are already struggling to get routine, nonspecialty care. (aamc.org) Kaine’s office tied the new bill to the Teaching Health Center model, which funds primary-care training in community settings such as federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. The new proposal would extend that approach to a wider range of health professions beyond the existing physician-focused structure. (ebs.publicnow.com) This is not a brand-new idea on Capitol Hill. Congress.gov shows Kaine introduced the same bill, S.4169, on April 18, 2024, and it was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the 118th Congress. (congress.gov) Beth O’Connor of the Virginia Rural Health Association said in Kaine’s release that rural communities “cannot thrive without access to healthcare” and called more training programs essential to improving local health infrastructure. The next test for the bill is whether it moves beyond introduction and wins committee action in the current Congress. (ebs.publicnow.com)