CHICAGO, Aug. 16, 2004 – The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is pleased with the U.S. District Court’s decision to dismiss a resident antitrust lawsuit that challenged the legality of the National Resident Matching Program.
“We are grateful to Congress for establishing law protecting the Match and to the court for issuing the decision that puts this matter to rest,” said David C. Leach, MD, executive director of the ACGME.
The lawsuit, filed by three former resident physicians, charged that the NRMP, along with its member organizations, the ACGME and 29 hospitals and universities, violated the Sherman antitrust act. The Match pairs residents with programs based on computerized ranks of the preferences of the residents and programs, resulting in an orderly process for pairing residents and programs in which 85% of residents are matched with one of their top three program choices.
The lawsuit, Paul Jung, MD, et al v. Association of American Medical Colleges et al was filed May 7, 2002, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On February 11, 2004, the district court dismissed the complaint against some of the defendants. In April Congress passed legislation, part of the Pension Fund Equity Act, exempting the Match program from antitrust regulations.
On Aug. 12, 2004 the district court granted motions to dismiss the case.
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The ACGME is a private, non-profit council that accredits 7,800 residency programs
in 27 specialties affecting 100,000 residents. Its mission is to improve the quality
of health care in the United States by ensuring and improving the quality of graduate
medical education for physicians in training.
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