Children’s Hospital receives $7 Million for pediatric graduate medical education

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For Immediate Release

Children’s Hospital receives $7 Million for pediatric graduate medical education

Pittsburgh, Pa. - October 1, 2001 -

Fifty-seven pediatric teaching hospitals across the country are receiving nearly $227 million in federal payments to support the training of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh was notified by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal agency charged with administering the funding, that the hospital will receive more than $7 million. The new payments result from Congress’ appropriation of funds last year for children’s hospitals’ graduate medical education (GME).

“It can’t be stressed enough how vital this funding is to providing quality education to the pediatricians and specialists who treat our children,” said Ronald L. Violi, President and CEO, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “This grant helps us bridge part of the gap between what our residency program costs and the support that we receive.”

Historically, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh received approximately $50,000 annually to train 140 residents – a figure that equated to 1/200th of the subsidy that other teaching hospitals with Medicare patients received. In 1999, when Congress established the GME Payment Program, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh received approximately $1.1 million.

Violi added, “In addition to thanking HRSA, we want to thank Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum who championed this critical issue last year and who are working to continue to increase funding for hospitals like ours next year.”

Congress established the federal Children’s Hospitals GME Payment Program in 1999 (the Health Care Research and Quality Act, P.L. 106-129) in response to an unintentional, but increasingly serious inequity in federal support for pediatric teaching hospitals. It authorized up to $285 million annually for the program – a level of federal GME support comparable to what other teaching hospitals already received through the Medicare program.

Pediatric teaching hospitals train nearly 30 percent of all pediatricians and 50 percent of pediatric specialists but do not benefit from the only major, reliable source of GME financing in the nation - Medicare. Children’s hospitals do not care for the elderly and have few, if any, Medicare patients. As a result, these hospitals, up until 1999, received less than half of one percent of the GME support that other teaching hospitals received.

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh trains an average of 140 residents each year. The hospital is receiving the tenth largest appropriation from HRSA. Funding levels are based on the volume of each residency and fellowship program.”

Contacts:
Mike Laffin or Melanie Tush Finnigan, 412-692-5016

Last Update
February 20, 2008

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