The point is that this is actually NOT reality, despite what hospitals are financially incentivized to claim. Residents provide cheap labor and keep hospitals afloat. The alternative is hiring more PA and NP who are by the nature of the way things are set up demand higher pay, or hiring more attending physicians who get paid even higher than that. Residents’ entire salaries are paid for by the federal government as explained above, providing free labor to hospitals. The vast majority of hospitals are such that in certain units the residents are the only doctors/“providers” there overnight. In what world can it be claimed that this is a net negative for the hospital?