Texas Legislature may Cut Dermatology Residency Funding

Next Thursday is an important day for dermatology and other specialty residents in Texas. The Texas House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to discuss cuts in funding specialty residency funding in our state. In the last budget, $80 million was appropriated for Texas residency training across the state. With the current deficit, it is expected that there will be less money to spend--$57 million. One of the proposals under consideration is to restrict state funding to the first 3 years of residency. Primary care specialties such as internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine would remain fully funded because they are all three year programs. However, this action could make specialty care in Texas less available than it is now, because funding cuts of this type may reduce the future number of dermatology and other specialty residency positions in Texas.