Senate bill reauthorizing Children’s Hospital GME advances

The U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this week approved the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act (S. 1557), legislation that would reauthorize the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program through fiscal year 2018. The program provides funding to freestanding children’s hospitals for direct and indirect expenses associated with operating their medical residency programs.

The Senate bill, which was approved with bipartisan committee support, provides these teaching hospitals with more residency slots for pediatricians, Inside Washington reported. The act includes a provision by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) that would extend funding to teaching programs at children’s psychiatric hospitals. A House-passed version of the bill (H.R. 297) would reauthorize the program through FY 2017.

Source: American Hospital Association