Categorical position after Internship

[dr green]

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I have a question about funding for residency positions. I will be doing an osteopathic traditional rotating internship in 2008; then will try for CA-1 position for 2009, but if there aren't any CA-1 positions available, I plan on applying to categorical allopathic anesthesiology positions. For a categorical spot, it would mean having to repeat the intern year.

Does anyone know if anesthesia programs would have any funding difficulties by accepting a resident into a categorical position who has already completed an internship year? Would programs be less likely to accept an applicant for a categorical position if they have already completed an internship? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[amyl]

i think only one extra year still falls under the max that the government will still pay for...otherwise they would have to pay out of pocket for you...something some places may not want to do.

 

[bubalus]

GME funding is kind of odd. The number of years of 100% funding a program can get for you is the number of years it takes to be board eligible in the specialty you initially start. For example, if you do a gen surg prelim and then anesthesia, you are eligible for 5 years of 100% funding since you can BE in gen surg in 5 years. The gen surg prelim uses 1 and years 2-4 are used by the anesthesia program. If you do a medicine prelim year and then anesthesia, you are eligible for 3 years at 100% since you can be BE in IM in 3 years, thus your last year of anesthesia is 50%. This is regardless of whether you match prelim + advanced initially, prelim only, or a non anesthesia categorical and change into anesthesia. If you do a transitional year, the anesthesia program would get 100% for your CA1-CA3 years because transitional year isn't a specialty and you can't be BC in it. If you completed a full residency, regardless of the specialty, the anesthesia program would get 50% funding for your 3 years. I don't know about the osteopathic rotating internship, but that sounds like something you can't be boarded in, so that shouldn't box you into a certain number of years of 100% funding eligibility.

Most programs probably aren't going to care too much about this since they'll still get the 50%, though with the big medicare cuts coming up, it may be more of an issue. If programs were that concerned, they'd be going all categorical much faster or would encourage their residents to do TYs.