Congress urged to bolster Children’s Hospitals GME funding in FY 2020

Nearly 30 organizations dedicated to protecting and advancing children’s health, including the AHA, this week urged congressional appropriators to provide $400 million in fiscal year 2020 funding for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program. “The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program is a vital investment in strengthening the pediatric workforce and access to care for children,” the organizations wrote. “Since Congress created the CHGME program in 1999 children’s hospitals have been able to grow their training programs significantly, increasing the number of pediatric providers and addressing critical shortages in pediatric subspecialty care. Today, half of all pediatric residents are trained at CHGME recipient hospitals. Sustaining pediatric training programs at children’s hospitals to meet the need of children, now and in the future, requires bolstering our national commitment. Support for training pediatric providers through CHGME lags behind the per-trainee levels provided through other federal programs. We cannot risk falling behind in advancing children’s health. Ongoing workforce shortages need to be addressed, most acutely among pediatric specialties such as developmental pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, and pediatric genetics and genomics.”