WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today announced that University Hospitals of Cleveland was awarded $393,080 in new federal funding to train pediatricians and pediatric specialists.

“Children are not just little adults, which means pediatricians and other professionals who treat kids need specialized pediatric training in order to provide the best care,” said Brown. “The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program helps provide children’s hospitals in Ohio with the funding necessary to train more pediatricians and specialists. This funding will ensure a future generation of skilled pediatric professionals are equipped with the specialized training and skills necessary to care for our children and give them a healthy start in life.”

The funding was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program, which supports children’s health care by providing freestanding children’s hospitals with federal funding to train pediatricians and pediatric specialists.

Last Congress, Brown worked to reauthorize the CHGME program. A five year reauthorization of the program was signed into law in November 2014. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Ranking Democrat on a key health subcommittee, Brown authored the Children’s Hospitals Education and Research Act of 1998, which first proposed the CHGME program. In March 2015, Brown led 31 Senators in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee seeking continued funding in fiscal year 2016.  Ohio is home to seven institutions that have depended upon on CHGME funds.  

Brown has worked to expand access to care for children. In January, Brown joined a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce legislation that would help coordinate care and improve health outcomes for children covered by Medicaid with medically complex conditions – a top legislative priority for these families and children’s hospitals across the country. The Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act of 2015, or “ACE Kids Act” would improve care coordination, quality measures, and cost containment for children in Medicaid who need specialized care and often need to cross state lines to get it. 

Brown also led efforts in the Senate to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  In February, he introduced the Protecting & Retaining Our Children’s Health Insurance Program (PRO-CHIP) Act. PRO-CHIP would extend funding for CHIP through fiscal year 2019. This bill was the baseline policy for the two-year CHIP extension that passed in April as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

 

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