Jim Bunning: “I am proud to be introducing legislation today with Senator Stabenow that will benefit many of the teaching hospitals…”

“I am proud to be introducing legislation today with Senator Stabenow that will benefit many of the teaching hospitals across the Nation, including 20 facilities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Teaching hospitals play a critical role in educating, inspiring, and preparing our young doctors to meet the challenges of their new profession. Although necessary, this training adds to the cost of patient care. That is why Medicare pays these hospitals for its share of cost of training new physicians through payments known as direct graduate medical education payments--or DGME payments. Unfortunately, there is some inequity in how DGME payments are calculated. The legislation we are introducing today takes steps to adequately reimburse all hospitals for the cost of training new physicians. Teaching hospitals initially reported their direct costs to the Department of Health and Human Services in the mid-1980s. These reported amounts are now the basis for which each teaching hospital is reimbursed. Unfortunately, there was a disparity in the types of costs each hospital reported, which has lead to large variations in payments between hospitals. Hospitals are also being reimbursed on data that is 20 years old.”