This bill directs the federal government to study and potentially establish a new system for identifying areas of the country that lack adequate access to general surgeons. Congress has found that while the nation faces an overall shortage of general surgeons, the problem is particularly severe in rural areas, which have only about 69 percent of the surgeons they need. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive study within one year examining whether current methods for identifying healthcare shortages accurately capture general surgery access problems and to analyze new approaches, such as measuring surgeon availability based on hospital service areas rather than existing designation methods. If the study supports it, the Secretary of Health and Human Services may then establish regulations to formally designate "general surgery shortage areas" and periodically update these designations based on current data. The bill does not specify funding amounts or authorize new spending, instead tasking existing federal agencies with conducting the research and developing potential new designation criteria.
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