Graduate Medical Education for Dental Residents Claimed by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our objective was to determine whether the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (the Hospital) included the appropriate number of dental residents in its full-time equivalent (FTE) counts when computing Medicare graduate medical education (GME) payments for fiscal years (FYs) 2001 and 2002. The Hospital generally included the appropriate number of dental residents in its FTE counts used to compute FYs 2001 and 2002 GME payments. However, the number of FTE residents claimed by the Hospital included didactic, i.e., classroom, time for the residents when working in nonhospital settings.

We recommended that the Hospital work with CMS to resolve the $338,490 related to FYs 2001 and 2002 FTEs for the didactic time of residents assigned to nonhospital settings.  In comments to our draft report, the Hospital acknowledged that it claimed the didactic time but said that it believed that the time was allowable.