News: AHA urges Congress to increase funding for pediatric training, services program

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and other national health organizations—like the American Medical Association, the Children’s Hospital Association, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness—have signed a letter urging Congress to increase funding for the Children’s Hospital Medical Education Program (CHGME).

According to the letter, the CHGME program is the “most important federal investment supporting the pediatric physician workforce and access to care for the nation’s children.” In particular, the program is responsible for:

• Training the majority of the nation’s pediatricians and pediatric specialists
• Educating the pediatric physician workforce where over two thirds of CHGME-funded physicians stay in the state where they completed their residency

The letter also noted that the CHGME funds the training of “more than half of the developmental pediatricians and almost half of all child and adolescent psychiatrists.”

In fiscal year 2024, Congress allocated $390 million to the CHGME program. The additionally requested $468 million, according to the letter, is due to the “growing challenges of the children’s mental health crisis as well as future respiratory virus surges that will increasingly impact [the United States’] pediatric health care workforce.”

Editor’s note: To read the AHA coverage, click here. To read the CHGME funding letter, click here.