For Immediate Release

Washington, D.C., July 11, 2001—America's teaching hospitals have been hit hard this year by increasing shortages of nurses, pharmacists, and other caregivers, as well as other rising patient care costs, and their leaders are worried about the effects on patient care. Today, more than 80 teaching hospital and medical school representatives from 19 states and the District of Columbia gathered in Washington to share their concerns with legislators and to urge them to support The American Hospital Preservation Act, H.R. S. 839/1556.

Sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the bills would provide a full inflation update to Medicare inpatient service payments in FYs 2002 and 2003, thereby helping hospitals keep pace with rising wages, benefits, and other patient care costs. In addition, the bills would maintain Medicare Indirect Medical Education payments at current levels, to ensure adequate resources for educating health professionals, and to sustain an environment to care for seriously ill patients, conduct clinical research, and develop new technologies.

"I have no higher priority than making sure that our teaching hospitals are doing the job of not only serving patients, but also teaching those who will come into the health care profession and keep it as strong as it is today," said Sen. Hutchison, who addressed the assembled teaching hospital and medical school leaders. "I look forward to having a number of Senate staff call my office this week and say 'sign me up.'"

"Through the Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 and other recent legislation, Congress has taken important steps to ensure adequate payment for teaching hospitals," said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "But the job is certainly not finished. We have to make sure that teaching hospitals are able to continue to provide vital patient care services upon which their communities depend."

Teaching hospitals are home to the most sophisticated medical services, including 80 percent of the nation's regional emergency trauma units, 88 percent of burn beds, and 64 percent of all open-heart surgical services. Increasing shortages of the highly skilled workforce of caregivers needed to provide these advanced services has begun to impact patients' access to care.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing over 100,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102

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