[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E896-E897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS EDUCATION EQUITY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PATRICK J. KENNEDY

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 21, 2009

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Speaker, our nation is currently experiencing a 
shortage of child and adolescent mental health professionals. This 
means that many children and adolescents are not getting the care they 
need, forcing some families to travel great distances or wait on long 
waiting lists for their child to receive the mental health services 
they need. Enhancing the mental health workforce is critical to 
addressing this problem.
  In 1980, the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee 
recommended that the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists be 
increased by 8,000 to 10,000 by 1990, in order to meet the projected 
needs for treatment of child mental disorders. In 1990, the Council of 
Graduate Medical Education reported that the nation would need more 
than 30,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists by 2000. Yet in 2009, 
there are only 7,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists practicing 
nationwide, and few are located in medically-underserved, rural and 
urban areas. The U.S. Bureau of Health Professions projects that the 
number of child and adolescent psychiatrists will increase by about 30 
percent to 8,312 by 2020, if funding and recruitment remain stable. 
This is still far less than the estimated number needed to meet the 
demand.
  Today, I am introducing legislation in an effort to address this 
crisis. The Children's Hospitals Education Equity Act would allow 
children's psychiatric hospitals to qualify for Medicare Children's 
Hospital Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding, giving these vital 
hospitals more of the resources they need to care for our nation's 
children and adolescents. Current law excludes children's psychiatric 
hospitals from receiving funding that is used to cover the expense of 
educating residents, including time attending doctors spend training

[[Page E897]]

residents, space and other administrative costs, and equipment use.
  The legislation I am introducing today would expand the definition of 
a ``children's hospital'' to include certain children's psychiatric 
hospitals, thus giving them the essential resources they need to build 
the supply of trained child and adolescent psychiatrists, to advance 
the quality of training for child psychiatrists, and to provide care 
for some of our nation's most vulnerable children and adolescents. This 
change is essential in order to improve the quality of mental health 
care our children receive.
  I thus urge your swift full consideration of this legislation.

                          ____________________