WASHINGTON -- Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin today
introduced the All-Payer Graduate Medical Education Act, a bill that would
create a Trust to fund graduate medical education in this country. The Trust
would reduce the burden placed on the Medicare program as the primary funding
source for training physicians and allied health professionals in the nation's
academic medical centers.
Rep. Cardin's bill, which was first introduced in the 105th Congress, would
establish a Trust funded by a one percent fee on health insurance premiums.
Teaching hospitals would receive approximately two thirds of the annual revenue
– $2 billion – from the Trust, while the remaining $1 billion would be used to
reduce Medicare's contribution. Currently, America's 125 academic medical
centers depend almost solely on Medicare, which does not fully fund the costs of
training residents. The current formula for graduate medical education payments
is based on a cost reporting system established more than 15 years ago.
"The current funding mechanism is inadequate and threatens the solvency of
Medicare. This bill establishes a fair, national support system for graduate
medical education, " said Rep. Cardin, a member of the Ways & Means
Committee. "The tremendous medical advances developed in our teaching hospital
benefit every segment of society; my bill recognizes these benefits, distributes
the funding obligation among all Americans and helps maintain the high quality
health care delivery system Americans now enjoy."
The Congressman represents Baltimore, MD, which has two of the finest
academic medical centers in the nation – Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and
the University of Maryland Medical Center. His proposal would increase funding
accountability by requiring hospitals to report annually on their efforts to
improve patient care, research and community service activities. The measure
would also address the physician workforce supply problem by directing the
Secretary of HHS, working with the medical community, to develop a plan to
reduce the number of first-year residences to 110 percent of American medical
school graduates.
The All-Payer Graduate Medical Education Act also expands eligibility
guidelines for Medicare disproportionate share payments, reallocating funds to
hospital that serve the greatest number of indigent patients. Finally, to ensure
continuing support of the nation's other health professions, the bill provides
an additional $300 million from Medicare savings to support graduate training
programs for nurses and allied health professionals.
