Archives: Title VII

  • FY04 Appropriations Alert
    ACTION NEEDED:
    1.) Please call your Representative to ask that he/she NOT support the Labor/HHS Appropriations bill for FY04, as passed by the House Appropriations Committee.

    2.) Please call your Senators, and ask that they NOT support the Labor/HHS Appropriations bill for FY04, as passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

    For talking points, please see below.

    BACKGROUND:
    Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have completed action on the Labor/HHS appropriations bills. Funding for Health Professions programs (Title VII) was cut in both bills; dramatically so in the Senate version. The Senate decimated the program, reducing it from an over $300 million dollar program to less than $20 million after full committee action!

    In the House version, Health Professions received a $30 million cut. The Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry cluster (which includes family medicine) received almost half of the total cut - over $13 million - which represents a 14% cut in the program.

    Our strategy is to make the case very strongly that these cuts are unacceptable. Our hope is that if the leadership realizes these bills are not supported as is, they will agree to add more funding to the total pot of money available.


    HOUSE-SPECIFIC TALKING POINTS:
    • Please do not support the bill to fund the Labor/HHS programs for FY04 (H.R. 2660)
    • Health professions received a $30 million cut in the House Labor/HHS
    appropriations bill. The Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry cluster
    received almost half of the total cut - over $13 million - which represents
    a 14% cut in the program. This cluster, which makes up 30% of the Title VII
    funding, received 44% of the overall cuts.

    SENATE-SPECIFIC TALKING POINTS:
    • Please do not support the Senate Appropriations Committee bill to fund
    the Labor/HHS programs for FY04 (S-1356).
    • Health professions funding was decimated in the Senate Labor/HHS
    appropriations bill. A program currently funded at over $300 million was cut
    to less than $20 million.
    • Thirty-three Senators - a third of the Senate - signed a letter to the
    committee Chair and Ranking Member asking that these programs
    receive STRONG funding this year. To see if your Senators signed on, click here.

    TALKING POINTS FOR ALL PHONE CALLS:
    • Such drastic cuts are not acceptable. Section 747 funding for family
    medicine has led thousands of physicians to go into primary care and family
    medicine and serve millions of patients. Specifically, a study by the
    Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies showed that medical schools that
    received Section 747 family medicine funds produced more medical students
    who ultimately practiced in family medicine or primary care, practiced in a
    rural area or practiced in an underserved area called a HPSA.
    • The study showed that this funding was associated with the production of
    an additional 7,000 primary care physicians by 2000. That represented about
    27 percent of all primary care physicians in practice at the time. The study
    showed that continued funding during the years of medical school training
    had more of a positive impact than intermittent funding.
    • Community Health Centers are increased in the House bill by $100 million,
    or 8%. This bill does not reconcile the fact that almost half the physicians
    who serve in community health centers are family physicians.
    • Unless Congress continues to fully fund programs to train future family
    physicians, who will staff these centers, the population will remain
    underserved.
    • Funding for health professions programs, particularly the Primary Care
    Medicine and Dentistry cluster, must be restored.
    • A recent survey of departments of family medicine assessing the impact of
    Title VII funding, found that just over half of departments of family
    medicine said their viability would be threatened if Title VII went away.
    The survey found that if Title VII funding goes away, the average number of
    faculty positions lost would be 6 per department.

     

  • FY04 Appropriations Alert: If your Representative and/or Senator(s) sit on the Appropriations Committee, please CALL them as soon as possible to request that they include funding of $169 million for Title VII, Section 747 in their priority wish list.

    You can follow up your conversation with a letter faxed to the Capitol Hill office.

    For a draft letter to your legislator(s), please click here.

  • FY03 Background
    click here to view
  • Key Talking Points for FY03
    click here to view

  • Our FY03 Request of Congress
    click here to view

  • FY03 Senate Appropriations Alert: We ask that you contact your Senator if he or she sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee to request that the committee add, on the Senate floor, additional funding to at least current levels for the health professions programs. The committee has not fully restored funding for health professions training programs for FY03. Funding for Title VII has been reduced by the committee to $160 million, as compared to $295 million appropriated in fiscal year 2002. We need to make sure the committee members know the cuts to the health profressions program have not gone unnoticed. Please contct your Senator.

  • FY03 House Appropriations Alert: We aks that you contact your Representative if he/she sits on the House Appropriations Committee as soon as possible. We expect the Committee to mark up the bill shortly. Appropriators need to hear your vocal support for Title VII and AHRQ programs!
  • FY03 Statement to the House Subcommittee on L-HHS Appropriations, concerning Family Practice Training Programs and Research
    click here to view
  • FY02 Testimony to the House Subcommittee on L-HHS Appropriations, concerning Family Practice Training Programs and Research (Presented by Robert Schwartz, MD)
    click here to view
  • FY01 Statement to the Subcommittee on L-HHS, Education & Related Agencies House Committee on Appropriations, concerning Family Practice Training Programs and Research
    click here to view
  • FY00 House Labor HHS Appropriations Subcommittee - Family Practice Training Programs and Research (Presented by John Dickinson, MD)
    click here to view
  • FY99 House Labor, HHS Appropriations Subcommittee - Family Practice Training Programs and Research (Presented by Joseph Hobbs, MD)
    click here to view
  • Presentation to the HRSA Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (Presented by Carlos Moreno, MD & Joseph Scherger, MD)
    click here to view
       

 

ALERT #1: RESTORE FUNDING FOR TITLE VII TO CURRENT LEVELS

Both the House and Senate have cut funding for Title VII, Section 747 Family Medicine training programs in their FY04 spending bills. We need your help now to restore funding to current levels.

BACKGROUND:
In the House version, Health Professions received a $30 million cut. The Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry cluster (which includes family medicine) received almost half of the total cut - over $13 million - which represents a 14% cut in the program.

The Senate’s version of the bill was even more drastic. Funding for Title VII would essentially be eliminated. All of Title VII received less than $20 million - down from its current level of $308 million. Family Medicine funding was zeroed out. Yet there is some positive news on the Senate side. On September 10, 2003 Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist engaged several other supporters of Title VII programs in a conversation on the Senate floor. Senator Frist asked that the conferees "fully restore funding for all Health Professions Training Programs."

Soon we expect the House and Senate to meet in conference to iron out the differences in the two bills. It is vital that Title VII be fully funded in conference.

ACTION REQUESTED:
Please call your Representative and Senators. Urge him/her to restore funding to current levels for all Title VII Health Professions programs, especially the Section 747 Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry cluster.

TOOLS TO HELP:

Talking points to aid in your phone conversation.

A draft letter to follow up your call

Senators Reed and Roberts initiated a Dear Colleague letter in the Senate in support of FULL FUNDING for Title VII. 33 Senators signed on--to see if your Senator supports Title VII funding, click here.