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Resolutions Adopted at the
67th Annual Conference of Mayors
New Orleans, Louisiana
June 11-15, 1999 |
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HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUPPORT FOR BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO PROVIDE
FEDERAL GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION FUNDING TO INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S TEACHING
HOSPITALSSUPPORT FOR BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO PROVIDE FEDERAL GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION
FUNDING TO INDEPENDENT CHILDREN'S TEACHING HOSPITALS, and PROTECTING OUR TEACHING
HOSPITALS FROM MEDICARE CUTS
WHEREAS, teaching hospitals are a valuable resource for many cities, providing
essential free care, important research, local employment and training opportunities for
our next generation of physicians; and
WHEREAS, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 mandated $115 billion in Medicare cuts
over a five year period; and
WHEREAS, President Clinton in his FY’00 budget proposed an additional $9
billion in cuts; and
WHEREAS, some proposals for further changes in Medicare would move support for
direct medical education and disproportionate share hospitals from the Medicare Trust Fund
to the annual appropriations process; and
WHEREAS, the results of the present cuts are resulting in job losses, price
rises and lowered bond ratings among teaching hospitals,
WHEREAS, independent children’s teaching hospitals are a critical component
of the health care safety net of our nation’s cities, providing clinical care,
education, research and public health services to benefit all children, regardless of
medical or economic need; and
WHEREAS, independent children’s teaching hospitals are major centers of
graduate medical education (GME) for children’s physicians, representing less than
one percent of all hospitals but training nearly 30 percent of all pediatricians and half
of all pediatric subspecialists, making these institutions a significant source of the
pediatric workforce in many cities and regions; and
WHEREAS, by virtue of their clinical, education, public health and research
missions, independent children’s hospitals also are major corporations making
valuable contributions to the economic health of their cities, including providing
employment to thousands of individuals while also stimulating significant economic
development in their surrounding communities; and
WHEREAS, independent children’s teaching hospitals face the same challenges
in receiving patient care reimbursement sufficient to cover the added costs of their GME
programs as other teaching hospitals face, but without the ability to access the one,
major source of GME support available to other teaching hospitals through the federal
Medicare program; and
WHEREAS, the lack of GME support jeopardizes the ability of independent
children’s teaching hospitals to sustain their missions of indigent care, academic
medicine, and specialty care; and
WHEREAS, since reforms to provide broad-based GME financing may take several
years, independent children’s teaching hospitals need, on an interim basis, new
federal GME funding to recognize their contributions to physician training and to provide
them with a more equitable competitive playing field; and
WHEREAS, there is strong bipartisan support in both Congress and the Clinton
Administration, plus broad support in the child health and hospital community, for
enactment of new federal GME funding for independent children’s teaching hospitals,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors recognizes the
important contributions independent children’s teaching hospitals make to the health
of children and the economic well-being of our nation’s cities, which can be
jeopardized without efforts to provide a more equitable competitive playing field for
these teaching institutions; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports the enactment
of new federal GME support for independent children’s hospitals, commensurate to the
level of GME support the federal government provides to all teaching hospitals, such as
has been proposed by leading members of Congress in both parties in the
"Children’s Hospitals Education and Research Act;" and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors calls on
Congress to revisit the Medicare cuts of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 as they apply to
teaching hospitals; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors opposes the
transfer of direct medical education and disproportionate share funding from the Medicare
Trust Fund to the annual appropriations process; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors will work
with the teaching hospitals of our cities to lobby Congress for fair funding of this
important urban resource.
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