The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy awarded Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) grants to 19 organizations across 14 states to develop new, accredited rural physician residency programs, including rural track programs.
These residency programs are then sustained long-term through viable and stable funding mechanisms, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public or private funding sources. The largest federal source of funding for graduate medical education, Medicare paid an estimated $21.2 billion in FY2023, primarily to hospitals. Training physicians in rural residency programs not only improves access to care in rural areas, but also increases the likelihood of graduates practicing in a rural community. The aim of this funding is to help rural communities address physician workforce shortages.
To date, HRSA has made 103 RRPD program awards across 36 states and one territory to develop rural residencies. As of August 1, 2025, 62 RRPD program recipients have created new rural residency programs for a total of 752 approved residency positions. Fifty-two of these residency programs have enrolled more than 660 resident physicians to train in rural areas.