Press Release
July
9, 1999
Contact: Gillian
Ray
703/684-1355
U.S. Conference of Mayors Passes Resolution
Supporting
Federal Funding for Physician Training
at Children's
Hospitals
(Washington, DC) — On June 16, 1999, the annual convention of the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously endorsed a resolution by the mayors of Salt Lake City, Boston, and Hempstead, NY urging Congress to support the "Children’s Hospitals Education and Research Act." The legislation would provide $285 million yearly to independent children’s teaching hospitals in support of physician training.
The resolution also expresses its support for all of the nation’s teaching hospitals by urging Congress to oppose reductions in Medicare support for graduate medical education (GME) overall.
Like other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals increasingly receive little financial support from most insurers. Unlike other teaching hospitals, they receive almost no support for training from the one major, remaining, stable source of funding ™ Medicare. As a result, independent children’s teaching hospitals do not receive the federal support that other teaching hospitals receive because they care for children rather than elderly Medicare patients.
According to the National Association of Children's Hospitals (N.A.C.H.), the government invests on average 200 times more to train doctors in an adult teaching hospital as it does to train physicians in a children's teaching hospital. For children's teaching hospitals, that difference amounts to about $285 million a year in federal support.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors' support of the "Children's Hospitals Education and Research Act" is critical to the 59 independent children's teaching hospitals that train nearly 30% of the nation's pediatricians and nearly half of pediatric sub-specialists.
"At the local level, mayors recognize the valuable resource that children's teaching hospitals represent to cities, from providing essential free care to their youngest residents, to training the next generation of doctors who provide such care," said Peters Willson, vice president for public policy, N.A.C.H. "By this resolution, the U.S. Conference of Mayors sends a strong message to Congress that local government believes we need to invest now in the future of children’s health care in America by financing the training of pediatricians at children’s hospitals."
The nation's 400 teaching hospitals which train both adult and pediatric health providers have been hard hit by major Medicare reductions that were enacted as part of the "Balanced Budget Act of 1997." The law cut Medicare reimbursement to hospitals in several ways, including support for GME that is financed as part of Medicare.
"In addition to supporting the 'Children’s Hospitals Education and Research Act,' the mayors oppose the reductions in Medicare support for teaching hospitals because they understand the pivotal role that all teaching hospitals play in support of the health and well-being of their communities," said Willson.
In Congress, there is growing bipartisan support to address both the federal funding gap for children’s teaching hospitals and the Medicare GME reductions for all teaching hospitals under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
In the Senate, the "Children's Hospitals Education and Research Act" (S. 391) was introduced by Sens. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), Kit Bond (R-MO), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and is supported by 24 other senators. In the House, the bill (H.R. 1579) was introduced by Reps. Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bill Thomas (R-CA), Jim Greenwood (R-PA), and is supported by 123 other members.
The National Association of Children’s Hospitals (N.A.C.H.) is the public policy affiliate of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions. Representing more than 100 freestanding acute care children's hospitals, freestanding children's rehabilitation and specialty hospitals, and children's hospitals organized within larger medical centers, N.A.C.H. addresses public policy issues affecting children's hospitals' missions of service to the children of their communities, including clinical care, education, research and advocacy.
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