Our Analysis:

The Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program (CHGME) was enacted in 1999 as part of the Healthcare Research and Quality Act (P.L. 106-129) to provide freestanding children's hospitals with discretionary Federal support for direct and indirect expenses associated with operating medical residency training programs. Since few children's hospitals receive Medicare funds, the legislation was designed to correct the exclusion of pediatric training in the Medicare GME program. CHGME provides funding to 56 hospitals in 30 states to support pediatric residency training. Today, freestanding children's hospitals train over 40% of pediatricians, 43% of pediatric specialists, and most pediatric researchers.

Grant funds would be awarded to eligible hospitals according to a formula that takes into account the number of residents each hospital employs and its cost per resident.

The bill also would authorize the appropriation of $220 million a year for 2012 through 2016 for payment toward the indirect costs of graduate medical education programs. Those payments would be made to hospitals on the basis of a formula that takes into account the hospital's number of discharges, the relative costliness of those cases as measured by a case-mix index, the number of residents at the hospital, and the number of inpatient beds in the hospital complex.

Summary:

5/11/2011--Introduced.Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2011 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to extend and reauthorize appropriations for payments associated with operating approved graduate medical residency training programs.

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