Federal Health Care Legislation to Impact TMC Institutions

Congressman Ken Bentsen (D-Houston) announced four major health care initiatives signed into law November 29 that will have a direct impact on the Texas Medical Center community.

Provisions in the Medicare funding system have been enacted into law to correct the inequity that currently allows some hospitals to receive a larger reimbursement for physician residency training than others. This legislation will have a beneficial effect for the teaching hospitals in the Texas Medical Center. For example, some hospitals in New York City are currently reimbursed seven times the rate of what Memorial Hermann Hospital receives to train its residents. The new formula to correct these inequities will mean hospitals with physician resident payments currently below 70 percent of the national average will be brought up to at least that level by 2001.

"Without this budget relief, training, particularly where there is disparity such as in the South, would be significantly compromised," said James E. Eastham, senior vice president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Hospital, at a press conference to announce the initiatives.

Additionally, the new law now provides an Indirect Medical Education reimbursement of 6.5 percent in Fiscal Year 2000, 6.25 percent in FY 2001 and 5.5 percent thereafter. Under the old law, the Indirect Medical Education reimbursement would have been reduced to 5.5 percent. The change will mean a savings of $700 million for the nation's hospitals over the next five years.

Graduate medical education funding for nursing and other health care professionals training at teaching hospitals will also increase as part of another Medicare provision. "Under existing law, teaching hospitals are reimbursed based on the number of Medicare patients seen at their hospitals," explained Congressman Bentsen in a statement released by his office. "With the introduction of Medicare managed care plans, many of these patients are no longer seen at these hospitals. As a result, Medicare reimbursements for these health professional programs have decreased. This provision restores this critical funding."

A second health care initiative increases the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $2.3 billion, a 15 percent increase, for biomedical research. Congressman Bentsen cited Baylor College of Medicine's participation in the Human Genome Project and ovarian cancer research being conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center as examples of two research programs in the Texas Medical Center that benefit from NIH funding.

A third initiative allocates $500,000 toward the establishment of a Center of Excellence for Research on Minority Health (CRMH).

"The Institute of Medicine reported earlier this year that there is a disproportionate share of minority and medically underserved patients who suffer from cancer and other health-related diseases," Congressman Bentsen said. "These federal funds would establish a multidisciplinary center for excellence in basic, applied, and clinical research to help meet the unique health-related challenges of minority and underserved populations."

Dr. Lovell Jones, professor of gynecologic oncology and director of the experimental gynecology-endocrinology laboratory at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, said that the intent of the center is to take what is already known and apply it to the community as well as make new discoveries. Dr. Jones added that Houston's ethnically diverse population will be used as a model for the center and that the initial focus will be on cancer.

A fourth provision brought a Bi-National Ashkenazi Jewish Research Coordinating Center one step closer to reality. "Language we worked to include in the bill expresses Congressional intent to eventually fund the proposed center," said Congressman Bentsen.

The center, in conjunction with the Texas Hadassah Medical Research Foundation, would work with a counterpart in Israel to conduct and coordinate research of breast and ovarian cancer in the high-risk Ashkenazi Jewish population.

Dr. Armin Weinberg, a THMRF founding member and associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine, stressed the importance of linking organizations here in the Texas Medical Center with others around the world to address this issue.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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