Bill Provides Proper Training for Those Who Care for Young Patients
WASHINGTON, DC— U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today praised the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee’s passage of bipartisan legislation he introduced to reauthorize funding to the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program. For over a decade, the CHGME program has provided children’s teaching hospitals in Pennsylvania and around the country with federal support for job training for physicians who care for children.
“This bill will ensure Pennsylvania hospitals have the resources required to meet the essential need for a specialized workforce to care for children,” said Senator Casey. “Each year through this program, over 5,000 residents are trained to care for our youngest patients.”
Pennsylvania has three freestanding children’s hospitals that would be affected by a failure to reauthorize funding for CHGME. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children would be significantly affected by the elimination of the program, which provides funding to children’s hospitals for job training for physicians who care for children. These three hospitals received approximately $40 million in federal funding in 2010.
The bipartisan bill introduced by Senator Casey and Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) to reauthorize funding for CHGME is S. 958, the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2011.
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