Washington, DC -- The House late yesterday approved legislation cosponsored by U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) that will give Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland over half a million dollars to train children's physicians.  Brown, the top Democrat on the Commerce Health and Environment Subcommittee, said House passage of the Health Research and Quality Act allowed $40 million for Children's Graduate Medical Education (GME) to be included in the end-of-year omnibus funding measure.

      "We place our trust in pediatricians to care for our children.  It is our duty to make sure they have the best training possible.  This effort will ensure that children's hospitals such as Rainbow Babies and Akron Children's Hospital continue to play a vital role in providing high quality health care," Brown said.

      The children's GME provisions would authorize federal resources to children's teaching hospitals over the next two years to train residents.  It's passage by unanimous consent allowed $40 million to be included in the fiscal year 2000 spending bill providing funds for the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies.  The appropriated funds will give Rainbow Babies in Cleveland between $500,000 and $600,000 next year.

      "Children's hospitals face major challenges in adequately training young doctors to become pediatricians.  The high cost of treating children and the financial squeeze being placed on hospitals from private managed-care health insurance companies are causing hospitals to drop their education programs," Brown said.

      The initiative is in response to the erosion of pediatric training funds due to reduced payments by managed care companies and insurers.  Brown noted the measure's two-year time frame is designed to provide temporary relief to children's teaching hospitals until Congress legislatively addresses the larger issue of federal support for graduate medical education.

      Brown noted this measure is important because children's hospitals provide a continuum of complex care to a large number of children, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.  Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland provides emergency care to more than 26,000 children each year, and Akron Children's Hospital treats 42,000. These facilities also conduct cutting-edge research in children's health-care issues and provide the bulk of their health-care services to chronically ill children.

      The Health Research and Quality Act, which contains the children's hospitals provision, authorizes funds for the Agency for Health Research and Quality.  The agency supports and conducts research on the quality and cost of health care and promotes public-private collaboration to improve health care quality.