June 14, 2000

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Deborah Pryce (R-OH-15) today said she would continue to fight for a $285 million a year appropriation for the independent children’s hospitals Graduate Medical Education (GME) program.

Pryce voted in favor of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, H.R. 4577, which contains an $80 million appropriation for children’s hospitals GME for fiscal year 2001, although the program is authorized at the $285 million amount.

"While I am pleased the legislation contains a 100 percent boost over the amount that was appropriated last year for children’s graduate medical education, I will continue to work tirelessly to see that this vital program receives full funding," Pryce said. "Children’s Hospital in Columbus and children’s hospitals across the nation need this funding to adequately train their physicians."

"This is an issue of fairness," Pryce said. "The full authorization is necessary to provide children’s hospitals support that is on par with that received by teaching hospitals that care for adults."

According to Pryce, the Medicare program currently provides the most significant support for graduate medication education. However, children’s hospitals do not treat Medicare patients, who are mostly senior citizens, and therefore do not receive graduate medical education through the Medicare program.

Pryce played a key role in offering an amendment last year to the Health and Research Quality Act of 1999, which became law on December 6, 1999. The amendment addressed the inequities of the graduate medical education system by authorizing the children’s hospitals GME program at the $285 million level for fiscal year 2001.

Pryce has been at the forefront of the effort in Congress to secure funds for physician training at children’s hospitals since 1997.