In a letter
to the chairs of the Democratic Party Platform Committee last week,
AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D. asked the committee
to consider including in the party platform language noting the
"enormous contributions" made by medical schools and teaching hospitals
to the nation's health and well being. The letter also calls for
the party to support "a sustained federal investment" in public
health activities, including the work of the National Institutes
of Health. The AAMC has urged the Democratic Party to continue to
promote policies that strengthen medical schools' and teaching hospitals'
core missions of medical education, patient care, and medical research.
A similar letter is being submitted to the Republican Platform Committee.
2008 AAMC Data Book now available
The 2008 edition of the AAMC Data
Book is now available. The annual publication provides statistical
data on U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals, with 86 tables
of current and historical data on the following topics: applicants
and students; faculty; medical school revenue; tuition, financial
aid, and student debt; graduate medical education; teaching hospitals;
health care financing; biomedical research; physicians; faculty
compensation and reference data such as price indices. The Data
Book tables are derived from the AAMC's reports and databases and
external sources such as the National Institutes of Health, the
American Medical Association, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and
the American Hospital Association. The Data Book is available in
print and online with a subscription.
Congress passes higher education bill
Congress has passed legislation
to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The "Higher Education Opportunity
Act of 2008," includes many provisions of importance to medical
education. While it does not reinstate the "20/220 pathway" that
permits economic hardship deferment of student loans, the bill does
create new loan forgiveness programs. It also expands workforce
shortage grants, increases Perkins Loan limits, requires state maintenance
of education funding, and provides for regulation and oversight
of the student financial aid community. The AAMC has supported many
of these provisions.
CMS releases final rule on Medicare
hospital inpatient payments
Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
issued its final rule
on Medicare hospital inpatient payments for fiscal year 2009. Under
the rule, capital indirect medical education payments will be reduced
by 50 percent in 2009 and eliminated altogether in 2010. The rule
also significantly scaled back CMS's previous proposal on so-called
"preventable" conditions-those for which Medicare would not make
additional payments-finalizing just three of the nine conditions
proposed. The number of additional clinical quality measures for
which hospitals must report data (in order to avoid a 2 percent
payment cut) was also scaled back; only 13 of the 43 proposed measures
were finalized.
Of particular significance to academic medical centers is CMS's
decision to adopt comments made by the AAMC on the "stand in the
shoes" provision regulating physician self-referral. The AAMC believes
that this provision, as finalized in the rule, will not apply to
most faculty practice plans.
