Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) secured $300 million dollars for the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program, to ensure that the next generation of pediatric physicians receive vital specialized training.
Stewart secured this funding in the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Bill, while also securing a $569 Million cut in overall spending from last year’s appropriations bill.
CHGME provides funding to independent children’s teaching hospitals, like Primary Children’s in Salt Lake City, to support the training of pediatricians and other residents.
Stewart worked for months to ensure that these critical funds were included in the HHS Appropriation Bill, which passed out of committee today.
“This program provides specialized training for 50% of all pediatric residents in the U.S.,” Stewart said. “This is critical in ensuring that the specialized health care needs of children in Utah and throughout the nation are met for years to come. I am extremely pleased to see this vital funding put in place.”
“The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program has provided, and continues to provide, critical funding to Primary Children’s Hospital and our medical resident training program, allowing Primary Children’s to train the new pediatricians so desperately needed in the intermountain area” said Katy Welkie, CEO of Primary Children’s Hospital. “These funds allow us to create highly focused pediatric medical training that ensures our sub-specialty residents and pediatricians stay up-to-date with the latest in healthcare, and continue to guarantee access to care for children. We have the largest geographical service area of any children’s hospital — 400,000 square miles — and the CHGME program allows us to serve the children and families in far-reaching areas who otherwise wouldn’t have the same level of care available.”
About the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program (CHGME):
- In the 1990’s, the number of pediatric subspecialty residents in children’s hospital residency programs sharply declined, threatening the future of the pediatric workforce.
- CHGME was enacted in 1999 to help increase the number of pediatric specialty residents.
- The 55 hospitals that receive CHGME funding (1 percent of all hospitals) train more than 6,000 full-time-equivalent residents annually.
- These hospitals train nearly half (49 percent) of all pediatric residents, including 45 percent of general pediatricians and 51 percent of pediatric specialists.
- CHGME has also allowed children’s hospitals to increase their training by more than 45 percent since 1999.
- CHGME recipient hospitals have accounted for more than 74 percent of the growth in the number of new pediatric subspecialists trained nationwide in that time.
- In Utah, Primary Children’s Medical Center is a recipient of the CHGME program.
Having passed the full House Appropriations Committee, this bill now moves to the House and Senate floors for final consideration.
