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Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program (CHGME)

The CHGME program was authorized by the Health Research and Quality Act of 1999 and announced in a June 19, 2000, Federal Register notice. The program is designed to help pediatric hospitals, which because of their low Medicare patient volume do not receive significant Medicare direct graduate medical education (DGME) and indirect medical education (IME) payments. Congress authorized the program for fiscal years 2000 and 2001, and appropriated $40 million from the discretionary portion of the Federal Budget for fiscal year 2000.

Only freestanding children's hospitals that have their own Medicare provider number will be eligible for the program. According to the final notice, seventy-four hospitals qualified for the program.

HRSA will make DGME and IME payments to eligible institutions during the federal fiscal year. One third of the appropriated money will go toward DGME payments and the remaining two thirds will go toward IME payments. The DGME payment will be based on a standardized national average per resident amount and the average number of FTE residents, subject to the resident cap and rolling average established under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The IME payment would vary by hospital, depending upon the complexity of its patient population, volume, and teaching intensity. HRSA maintains a site devoted to the CHGME program.

The AAMC monitors the CHGME program and provides input to HRSA staff as needed.

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