The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment (CHGME) program funds freestanding, children's hospitals. The money helps their graduate medical education (GME) programs train resident physicians and dentists.
Learn about the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 CHGME funding opportunity.
What’s our impact?
In FY24, we awarded $367.2 million in formula payments to 59 hospitals nationwide and $1.77 million in Quality Bonus System (QBS) payments to 29 hospitals nationwide. Funding helps them care for low-income children across the country.
With our funding every year, the program trains 51% of all general pediatrics residents and over half (53%) of all pediatric subspecialty residents and fellows.
What did we accomplish recently?
CHGME Payment Program Evaluation Academic Years 2018 – 2023 (PDF - 298 KB)
How does the program work?
Each summer, eligible hospitals apply.
Using data from those applications, the program calculates the payments that each hospital will receive for direct medical education (DME) and indirect medical education (IME).
- DME funding covers stipends for residents, faculty salaries, overhead and other costs of running a training program.
- IME funding assists in costs like reduced productivity of staff training residents and the processing of additional diagnostic tests those residents may order.
- From October through March, fiscal intermediaries conduct audits of reported resident counts.
- In the spring, each hospital submits a reconciliation application. We use this to figure out final DME and IME payments.
How long does resident training last?
It depends on the medical, dental, or pediatric specialty track that a resident chooses. Training takes three to seven years to complete.
How does funding help hospitals?
- Provides education to medical school graduates
- Improves research capabilities
- Care for children most in need
Can my hospital apply?
Your hospital is eligible if it:
- Participates in an approved Graduate Medical Education (GME) program
- Has a Medicare Provider Agreement
- Is excluded from the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS)
- Operates as a freestanding* children’s teaching hospital
*A freestanding children’s teaching hospital doesn’t operate under a Medicare hospital provider number assigned to a larger health care entity that receives Medicare GME payments.
How can my hospital remain eligible?
Your hospital must keep its standing as freestanding children’s hospital. You must continue to train residents during the federal fiscal year in which we make CHGME program payments.
Why is our work important?
The CHGME program educates and prepares the U.S. pediatric health workforce to serve children and innovate in the area of pediatrics.
How to contact us
Email Lisa Flach-Fulcher
Phone: 301-443-0365