AHRQ's friends are calling for funding boost

The effort comes in response to a Bush administration proposal to freeze the agency's 2005 budget at current levels.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. April 12, 2004.

A coalition of 130 medical, academic and business organizations is asking Congress to increase funding for the government agency responsible for finding ways to improve patient safety and health care quality.

The Bush Administration's budget for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality freezes 2005 spending at 2004 levels -- just under $303.7 million. The Friends of AHRQ coalition, which includes the AMA, is lobbying congressional leaders to push that to $443 million to provide more money for research into patient safety, health care costs, translating research into practice and implementing suggestions in the Institute of Medicine's "Crossing the Quality Chasm" report.

"The phrase 'health services research' is about as unsexy as you can get, but the more you understand the complexity of the health care system, the more you understand the need for health services research," said Michael Chernew, PhD, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and editor of the American Journal of Managed Care.

The coalition's $443 million request includes $53 million for comparative studies as part of the Medicare Modernization Act. The legislation calls upon AHRQ to conduct these studies but didn't provide funding for them.