Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Payment Program

This announcement solicits applications for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Payment Program. Federal funding for graduate medical education (GME) is primarily provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to the enactment of the CHGME Payment Program, children’s teaching hospitals received a disproportionately low amount of Federal GME funding when compared to teaching hospitals that serve adult patients. The purpose of the CHGME Payment Program is to compensate for the disparity in the level of Federal GME funding for freestanding children’s...

There are two categories of children’s hospitals that may be eligible for CHGME payments in FY 2016, depending on the funding appropriated to the program. New hospitals that are applying for the CHGME program include hospitals that are eligible as a "Newly Qualified Hospital" or hospitals that are new to the CHGME program but qualify under the "Currently Eligible Hospitals" requirements.  a. Currently Eligible Hospitals: Children’s hospitals that met the eligibility requirements prior to the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2013 remain eligible for the program. These children’s hospitals must meet the following criteria: 1) It participates in an approved graduate medical education (GME) residency training program; 2) It has a Medicare provider payment agreement; 3) It is excluded from the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) under section 1886(d)(1)(B)(iii) 3 of the Social Security Act and its accompanying regulations; and 4) It is a "freestanding" children’s hospital. b. Newly Qualified Hospitals: As per the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2013, a freestanding hospital may be eligible for CHGME payments depending on the level of funding appropriated to the program if it meets the following criteria: 1) It has a Medicare payment agreement and that is excluded from the Medicare inpatient hospital prospective payment system (IPPS) pursuant to section 1886(d)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act and its accompanying regulations; 2) Its inpatients are predominantly individuals under 18 years of age; 3) It has an approved medical residency training program as defined in section 1886(h)(5)(A) of the Social Security Act; 4) It is not otherwise qualified to receive payments under this section or section 1886(h) of the Social Security Act. For those free-standing children’s hospitals that met the above requirements as of April 7, 2014, other than the Secretary has not determined an average number of full-time equivalent

Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration APadlan@hrsa.gov