Community TEAMS Act of 2025
The Community TEAMS Act of 2025 would create a new grant program under the Public Health Service Act to expand community-based training opportunities for medical students in rural areas and medically underserved communities. The program would provide grants to consortia that include one or more medical schools (osteopathic or allopathic) and community partners such as rural health clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, or facilities located in medically underserved areas. The goal is to support clinical rotations in such settings—especially outpatient care—and to promote long-term, sustainable physician practice in high-need communities. Grants could run from one to five years and require applicants to include plans for ongoing quality improvement, measuring impact on access to care, and ensuring sustainability after federal support ends. The bill also updates related provisions to explicitly include this new community-based training focus within the broader Section 330A program.
Key Points
- 1Creates a new grants program under Section 330A to expand community-based medical student training in rural and medically underserved areas, emphasizing outpatient settings and long-term physician presence in high-need communities.
- 2Eligible applicants must form a consortium of one or more medical schools and one or more qualifying community partners (rural health clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, or facilities in medically underserved communities).
- 3Grants may last 1 to 5 years; applications must include project details, justification for federal support, quality improvement plans, how the project will increase access to quality care, sustainability plans, and evaluation plans.
- 4Requires consultation with the applicable State office of rural health (or other appropriate state entity) during the grant process.
- 5The bill makes conforming changes to broaden the scope of 330A to explicitly include expanding community-based medical student training, and updates cross-references to reflect the new subsection (h).