HHS announces $200 million for health care training
By CC Times, Published July 29, 2009

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday announced the availability of $200 million to expand the training of health care professionals. 

The funds, which will support grants, loans, loan repayment, and scholarships are expected to train about 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of fiscal year 2010, according to HHS.

The funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to address workforce shortages under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—the stimulus legislation.

“Health care reform cannot happen without an adequate supply of well-trained, well-distributed providers,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  “These ARRA funds provide targeted investments in primary care, nursing, faculty development and equipment purchases that will shore up the workforce as we prepare for reform.”

“Our health professions programs have been significantly underfunded these past few years,” said Mary Wakefield, a register nurse and administrator of HRSA. “These funds will help us begin to rebuild the infrastructure that is so essential to producing the number of skilled health professionals the nation needs.”

The $200 million will be directed to the following program areas:

• $80.2 million for scholarships, loans and loan repayment awards to students, health professionals and faculty.  Of those funds, $39 million will be targeted to nurses and nurse faculty, $40 million to disadvantaged students in a wide range of health professions and $1.2 million to health professions faculty from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• $50 million in grants to health professions training programs. Funds will be used to purchase equipment needed to expand programs and improve the quality of training.
• $47.6 million to support primary care training programs. These funds will support the training of residents, medical students, physician assistants, dentists and individuals, many of whom will practice in underserved areas.
• $10.5 million to strengthen the public health workforce. Funds will support public health traineeships and increase the number of individuals trained through preventive medicine and dental public health residencies.
• $10.2 million to increase the diversity of the health professions workforce.
• $1.5 million to support the efforts of state professional licensing boards in reducing barrier to telemedicine.      

HRSA will use a competitive process to award the funds. Some awards will be made over the next several months, while others will be announced over the next several months.

The remaining $300 million in ARRA workforce funds will help expand HRSA’s National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loan repayment for primary care providers who serve in health professional shortage areas. In addition, HRSA received $2 billion through ARRA to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program.