September 17, 1999
"Teaching Hospital Advocacy Day II" Deemed A Success
More than 160 hospital and health system leaders from over 30 states came to Washington September 14 to discuss with their Congressional delegations how the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 is affecting the teaching hospital community. Teaching hospital representatives hit Capitol Hill after a morning session of briefings. Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) addressed the group, urging teaching hospital leaders to keep pressure on Members of Congress to restore BBA cuts to teaching hospitals. University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System President and CEO Ralph Muller, American Hospital Association (AHA) Executive Vice President Rick Pollack, and AAMC Executive Vice President Dick Knapp also spoke to the group.
Muller presented recent data generated by the AAMC, outlining the financial impact of the BBA on teaching hospitals. Indicating that the BBA's cuts in the Medicare Indirect Medical Education (IME) payments are disproportionately contributing to the severe financial pain occurring at teaching hospitals, Muller urged teaching hospital leaders to keep their message to Members of Congress focused- additional IME cuts must be stopped. Pollack and Knapp reviewed with hospital leaders the summer's advocacy activities as well as the political outlook and timeline for potential BBA relief. Both indicated that while the budget conflicts may prevent Congress from adjourning before late October or November, opinions as to which health care group should receive relief are crystallizing this month.
S. 1023 and H.R. 1785, introduced by Sen. Moynihan and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) freeze the BBA's reductions in IME payments at its current level of 6.5 percent. Moynihan, who gave remarks at the morning session, noted that his legislation was gaining bipartisan cosponsors. Moynihan reiterated his belief that Graduate Medical Education must funded by all payers to assure stable, long term funding. Kennedy, saying that Congress should not adjourn until teaching hospitals are granted BBA relief, pledged his commitment to work with his colleagues in the Senate as well as the Administration to assure the President's support.
Later that afternoon, Muller and 25 of his colleagues joined a group of Senators organized by Sens. Kennedy, Moynihan, Specter (R-Pa.) and Frist (R-Tenn.) for an intensive review of the BBA's impact on teaching hospitals. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Connie Mack (R-Fla.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) also were present. Jack Lew and Dan Mendelson from the Office of Management and Budget were also in attendance.
Information: Lynne Davis, or Paul Bonta, AAMC Office of Governmental Relations, 202-828-0526.
