What the Federal Stimulus Package Means for Other Recovery Act Health Care Funds

Table of Contents

Lead Hazards Reduction

$100 million has been earmarked for lead poisoning prevention. It will be distributed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In New York State, $2,038,081 has been provided to the city of Utica to fund the removal of lead paint hazards.

What this means for New Yorkers:

Utica is the city with the highest incidence of lead poisoning in New York State. The Department of Health's lead poisoning prevention program has previously targeted eight counties at high risk of lead poisoning. The stimulus grant will direct significant funding to the area with the greatest problem, giving Utica the resources it needs to address this issue.

Workforce Training

U.S. Department of Labor

$500 million has been allocated to states through the U.S. Department of Labor to be used for training adults for jobs. New York State will receive $31.5 million of that funding.

In addition, in July, 2009, US DOL announced a $220 million competitive grant opportunity -- open to public entities or private nonprofit entities, local Workforce Investment Boards and their One Stop Systems, Tribal organizations, education and training providers, labor organizations, health care providers, and faith-based and community organizations - for worker training and job placement in health care jobs. Applications are due October 5, 2009.

What this means for New Yorkers

The $31.5 million will be used to support the NYS Department of Labor's One-Stop employment centers. It will also support training given at community colleges and local training organizations that can include courses for health care sector job placements. The funding must be used by June 30, 2011.

US DOL expects to make 55 competitive grant awards and it will not be known until this fall how much will be coming to New York State. These grants can address staffing shortages and the need for special professional workers in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. In addition, they can also be used to train and place people in the emerging technology necessary to support electronic health records and sharing medical information via the Internet.

Health and Human Services – Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)

$500 million in additional funds was included in the Recovery Act to supplement the amounts available in HRSA programs such as the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program.

HRSA announced a new program SEARCH, Student/Resident Experiences and Rotations in Community Health, to strengthen systems of care in underserved communities through the development of links between community-based sites and academic institutes. Proposals were due July 20, 2009.

Also, HRSA announced how it will target and distribute, nationwide, $200 million of the available funds:

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

What this means for New Yorkers

Funds are awarded directly to applicants for scholarships, loans, and loan repayments. Typically, in exchange they required to serve a minimum of two years in a community that has a shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. Applications are continuously being accepted and a listing of the location of vacancies and the medical specialty of the positions is available for search.

In August, 2009, HRSA distributed $8.1 million through its Nurse Education Loan Repayment Program to healthcare facilities across the nation. Five downstate facilities in New York received ARRA funds to use to help nurses repay their education debts. Six other colleges and universities in New York were awarded grants totaling almost $500,000 to support the training of masters and doctors nursing degree students who commit to teach in this field.

On September 11, 2009, HRSA announced seventeen grants awarded to New York State colleges and universities, including:

On September 17, 2009, the Department of Health received a grant of $54,000 to collaborate with other State agencies and resources to increase the number of NHSC applicants that are placed in qualified sites in New York State and to continue to coordinate these placements with Doctors Across New York.

  • Centers of Excellence - $2.1 million to Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Yeshiva University establish or expand programs for minority individuals to improve student academic performance, recruit and retain minority faculty, and expand opportunities to train at off-campus, community-based health care sites.
  • Public Health Traineeships - $163,000 to Columbia University to support traineeships that pay tuition, fees, and stipends for students in biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, toxicology, nutrition, or maternal and child health.
  • Dental Public Health Residency Training - $296,000 to Health Research Institute for residency programs in dental public health, including financial aid to residents.
  • Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students - $1.2 million to fourteen health professions schools and training programs which, in turn, provide scholarships to full-time health professions students, with priority given to those with financial need.

Community and Migrant Health Centers

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been charged with distributing stimulus funds to federally qualified community and migrant health centers (FQHCs). $1.5 billion is to be used for infrastructure and $500 million for services.

What this means for New Yorkers:

On March 29, 2009, five community health centers in New York City and one in Penn Yan were awarded a total of $7 million in New Access Point grant awards. This is expected to provide services for an additional 45,000 people and create 335 jobs.

On March 27, 2009, HHS released $338 million nationwide to 1,128 federally qualified health care centers for Increased Demand for Services (IDS) grants.

  • New York State centers received $19.4 million, or 5.75% of the national total.
  • 51 centers received grants – 28 of them in New York City boroughs. New York City's share of the New York State total is $9.4 million, or 48.4%.

On July 2, 2009, another round of capital improvement grant awards was announced which totaled more than $850 million nationwide.

  • Fifty-one centers in NYS received grants totaling $52.3 million, or approximately 6.25% of the national amount available.
  • Five centers received that maximum amount of $2.5 million.
  • Twenty-nine of the centers receiving these grants are in New York City and obtained a total of $30.2 million or 58% of the State total.

More information, including the full list of recipients for all three of the above grants.

On June 23, 2009, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced that FQHCs were eligible to compete for a nationwide total of $525 million in its Facility Investment Program.

  • Applications are due August 6, 2009.
  • HRSA expects to make 100 awards between $750,000 and $12 million to successful applicants.

USDA Rural Development Grants

$5.87 billion of the stimulus funds will be distributed nationally by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for rural development. The awards will be made directly to municipalities, counties, special-purpose districts, tribal governments and non-profit corporations that have the legal authority to borrow and repay loans and to construct, operate and maintain facilities. The organizations must be located in rural areas having a population under 20,000 people.

The rural development grants may be used for hospitals, outpatient clinics and rehabilitation centers, medical and dental clinics, and nursing homes. About one-third of current USDA rural development funds are used for community health care programs and facilities.

In addition, USDA Rural Development funds may be used for drinking water infrastructure improvement projects.

What this means for New Yorkers:

The total amount of money that New York will receive for health care rural development from stimulus funds is not yet known. New York State has a number of rural areas that would qualify for this funding; however, it remains to be seen if any projects within the state will be included in the distribution.

Health Research

Non-Federal Research Buildings

Nationally, $10.4 billion will be distributed through the National Institute of Health's National Center for Research Resources for research in the field of health. $1 billion will go for infrastructure; $300 million for shared instrumentation or capital equipment; $400 million for comparative effectiveness research; $8.2 billion for other research; and $500 million for NIH buildings. Awards will be made directly to successful grant applicants, including public or private colleges and universities.

What this means for New Yorkers

Many of New York State's colleges and universities apply for these grants. Applications for $200 million of Challenge Grants were due at the end of April 2009; applications for various infrastructure and equipment funds were due over the course of the summer of 2009.

In November 2009, NIH announced the availability of funds to encourage consolidations through such efforts as merging facilities or making equipment available to a greater number of investigators. Grants will be made as administrative supplements to currect research recipients. Applications are due January 13, 2010.

NIH lists all the research grant awards on its web site. Information about the over 1,100 awards coming into New York can sorted by Congressional District and research institution. Specific details about the nature of the research and the amount of the award are also posted. In addition, NIH has granted New York State over $3 million in supplements to employ about 250 students and teachers in summer research projects.

Greater funding for health-related research not only benefits the institutions and scientists receiving the grants, but it may also find new ways to prevent or cure disease.

Health Research and Quality

$1.1 billion will be distributed through the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Of that funding, $300 million will go to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research Quality to expand its Effective Health Care program, which provides reviews of health research to the research and medical community. $400 million will go the National Institutes of Health and $400 million will go to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Before any awards are made, the Institute of Medicine (the part of the National Academy of Sciences that is concerned with medicine, biomedical science, and health) must recommend priorities for research. Those recommendations were completed in June 2009. A Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research will be convened to offer guidance and coordination on the use of these funds.

AHRQ announced two new comparative research effectiveness grant opportunities on September 25, 2009: $100 million in CHOICE grants and $29.5 million in iADAPT grants. Applications for both initiatives are due in December.