WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) applauded President Obama signing into law legislation to reauthorize the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) payment program. 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. CHGME ensures continued medical training for professionals treating children and has provided funding to seven Ohio children’s hospitals over the years. The Senate passed CHGME reauthorization in November 2013; the House earlier this month.

“This is excellent news for Ohio families and their children,” Brown said. “Children’s healthcare requires doctors and hospitals that specialize in pediatrics. These funds ensure that hospitals have the resources necessary to train doctors and equip them with the tools to treat children. I applaud President Obama for signing this bill into law, and for both chambers coming together to ensure the health and wellbeing of our country’s youth.”  

Last week, Brown led 28 Senators in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee seeking continued CHGME funding for Fiscal Year 2015, as he has done the past several years. In February 2013, he wrote the President to urge full funding of the program in light of the President’s budget request which would have reduced funding by 66 percent. CHGME was funded at $265 million in fiscal year 2014; the new law reauthorizes funding at $300 million per year. 

Created by Congress in 1999, the CHGME program allows children’s hospitals to sustain, improve, and expand teaching and training programs. As a result, these hospitals are working to reverse a decline in pediatric residencies that began in the 1990s. A survey conducted in 2011 by the Children’s Hospital Association found that significant doctor shortages in many pediatric specialties is delaying children’s ability to access timely care. These shortages contribute to provider vacancies in children’s hospitals that often last 12 months or more.

This program is the most important federal investment in strengthening the pediatric workforce, as pediatric providers are not eligible for residency training under the Medicare-funded Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. Nationally 55 hospitals in 29 states and the District of Columbia participate in the program, which supports the training of more than 6,000 pediatric resident physicians each year. Ohio is home to seven institutions that have depended upon on CHGME funds.

A list of these facilities and funds they have received in prior years from the CHGME program can be found: HERE.

 

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