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NEW YORK, NY March 28, 2008 — A blue-ribbon panel is urging New York to change how it funds one of the state’s largest industries - medical education.

About $3.5 billion are spent training some 16,000 medical residents each year.

That means about one in six of the nation’s physicians are trained in New York. It’s paid for largely by the state and federal government through Medicaid, because those medical trainees frequently serve uninsured and under-insured patients.

Both Albany and Washington have grumbled for years that too much of the money goes toward other expenses at academic medical centers, besides serving the poor.

Among other things, the panel report recommends requiring hospitals to more thoroughly document how they spend tax dollars.

For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.