Amending Section 340E of Public Health Service Act Relating to Children's Hospitals

AMENDING SECTION 340E OF PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT RELATING TO CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2004)

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Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), for his leadership as ranking member on this Subcommittee on Health, which is so important not only here in the Congress but for our entire country; and to my good friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), our chairman. Surely we would not be here this afternoon were it not for his support and pushing to bring this to the floor so that we can consider it.

What this bill is about, Mr. Speaker, is legislation that is going to fix a flaw in the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education payment formula. This formula inadvertently penalizes Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, which is in my district in Palo Alto.

If I just might depart for a moment, Lucile Packard is the mother and the visionary that established this hospital in Palo Alto. There are many from across the world and from different parts of the country that come to have their children cared for there. So I think she is watching us, and she would be very proud. Were it not for Lucile Packard, as I said, this hospital would not exist today.

Mr. Speaker, a portion of the Graduate Medical Education calculation is based on the severity of case mixes. At Lucile Packard Hospital, which is only one of two hospitals in the United States that offers pregnancy and healthy newborn services, it is then penalized. Most do not take care of healthy newborn babies. When they become part of the mix with the very ill ones, the formula becomes skewed. So if the hospital did not care for the healthy newborns, we would not be here today.

The Committee on Energy and Commerce took a look at this to fix it permanently. As the gentleman stated, that will be taken care of in 2006. Today, we are fixing the small gap between now and 2006. It is going to go a long way.

I want to reassure my colleagues, there are not any costs associated with the bill. This is paid for by a reduction in the fiscal year 2005 payment to all hospitals that receive these payments under the program, and that would not have happened unless the hospitals came together. And they have endorsed this. There is endorsement from the National Association of Children's Hospitals, and I want to thank them for coming together to allow this to happen.

I also want to thank John Ford on the staff of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and certainly Chuck Clapton on the staff of the gentleman from Texas (Chairman Barton), and I want to urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 5204. It is going to help a great deal, and that help is going to be appreciated not only by the children and their families, but also the young physicians that have devoted themselves to a life in medicine; and in this graduate medical payment, it will enjoy the fullness it should and this will be repaired.

Again, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), most of all for his friendship that I have enjoyed and benefited from and am grateful for since first coming to the House.