AACOM monitors and advocates on federal issues that address or may impact osteopathic medical education. Select from the topic links below to learn about these issues, related AACOM activity and additional resources.
FY'11 Budget Request
Economic Stimulus (ARRA)
FY'10 Budget Request
FY'10 Appropriations
Small Business Innovation Research Reauthorization
FY 2011 Administration’s Budget Request
- On 2/1/10, President Obama proposed his administration’s fiscal year 2011 budget that would provide $1.16 trillion in discretionary spending, not including military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama is proposing a three-year “freeze” on spending for non-security programs, limiting it to the $446.3 billion provided in fiscal 2010. However, some agencies and programs will still see spending increases under the plan, while others are frozen or cut.
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- The President’s budget proposes $911 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a $51 billion increase over FY10. The administration increased the health professions programs by $33 million to $995 million - the Training for Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry Program was level funded at $54 million; and the Centers of Excellence and Health Careers Opportunity Program were level funded at $25 million and $22 million. The National Health Service Corps benefited from an increase in funding with the President allocating $169 million (+$27 million); Community Health Centers received a $290 million increase to $2.48 billion dollars; and NIH received a $1 billion increase to $32.2 billion with NCCAM receiving $132 million, a $3 million increase. The budget also includes $371 billion for physician payment over the next 10 years, an estimate based on past Congressional actions.
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| Posted 02/16/2010 |
Economic Stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
- HRSA also recently announced competitions for a new grant program -- the Equipment to Enhance Training for Health Professionals (EETHP). HRSA is making available ARRA grant funds of approximately $50,000,000 to fund approximately 200 grant awards for a one-year project and budget period to support programs in the purchase of health professions training equipment for 21 program areas. Applications are due March 26, 2010, at 8:00 PM (EDT) via Grants.gov (www.grants.gov); additional information is due April 26, 2010, at 5:00 PM (EDT) via HRSA's EHB (https://grants.hrsa.gov/webexternal/home.asp). More information
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- For the Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry Grant Program, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is making available American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant funds of approximately $48 million in combination with an additional funding opportunity of $54 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 regular appropriations for two-year projects to support the following six program areas: academic administrative units, residency training, predoctoral training, faculty development training, physician assistant training, and general and pediatric dental residency training. Applications are due March 24, 2010, at 8:00 PM (EDT) via Grants.gov (www.grants.gov); additional information is due on April 9, 2010, at 5:00 PM (EDT) via HRSA's Electronic Handbooks System (EHB) (https://grants.hrsa.gov/webexternal/home.asp). More information
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- The Secretary of HHS announced on 07/28/09 the availability of $200 million in ARRA funds supporting grants, loans, loan repayment, and scholarships to expand the training of health care professionals. The funds are expected to train approximately 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of FY 2010. The funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to address workforce shortages under ARRA. The $200 million will be directed to the following program areas: (1) $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); (2) $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); (3) $47.6 million to support primary care training programs (funds will support the training of residents, medical students, physician assistants, dentists and individuals, many of whom will practice in underserved areas); (4) $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); (5) $10.2 million to increase the diversity of the health professions workforce; and (6) $1.5 million to support the efforts of state professional licensing boards in reducing barrier to telemedicine. HRSA is using a competitive process to award all funds.
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- On 06/29/09, the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCCER) released recommendations for how the HHS Office of the Secretary will spend $400 million in funds for CER. The FCCCER report, mandated by ARRA, is designed to help the HHS Secretary and lawmakers improve the quality of care for patients and provide patients and doctors the best information possible to make decisions about health care. Congress charged the FCCCER with the task of identifying key areas of CER where funding could make the greatest impact to improve health outcomes for our nation. The report includes a definition of CER, criteria for determining which research projects should be a priority, and a strategic framework to identify gaps and future priorities. The report also catalogues current federal activities on CER, which had not been previously inventoried, and is available at: www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cer.
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- On 06/05/09, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the availability of nearly $200 million from ARRA to support student loan repayments for primary care medical, dental, and mental health clinicians who want to work at National Health Service Corps (NHSC) sites. The new funds are expected to double the number of NHSC clinicians and result in 3,300 awards to clinicians serving in health centers, rural health clinics, and other health care facilities that care for uninsured and underserved people. Fully trained health professionals who are dedicated to working with the underserved and have qualifying educational loans are encouraged to apply for this opportunity. In addition to $50,000 for loan repayment, each clinician receives a competitive salary and a chance to have a significant impact on a community. In exchange for the loan repayments, clinicians serve for two years with the NHSC. Primary care practitioners interested in applying for loan repayments should visit: http://nhsc.hrsa.gov. To see a list of opportunities available by state, go to: http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/nhsc/vacancies.html.
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- Designed to put Americans back to work quickly and revive a moribund economy that has been non-responsive to other stimuli and incentives, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), signed on 02/17/09, by President Obama, included: Training for Primary Care Physicians and Nurses – $500 million; Construction and Renovation of University Research Facilities – $1.3 billion; National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Funding – $8.2 billion; Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Funding – $1.1 billion; Pell Grants – $15.64 billion; Higher Education Repair and Modernization Funds – approximately $48 billion for elementary, secondary, and higher education, but no specific breakout for higher education; Higher Education Assistance to Expand Health Information Technology Educational Programs – no specific amount designated for competitive grants, with osteopathic medical schools specifically eligible.
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| Updated: 3/4/2010 |
FY 2010 Administration's Budget Request
- Among the highlights in the President’s budget requests are the inclusion of funding for Title VII Health Professions programs. This is the first presidential budget since the Carter Administration to include Title VII funding in the request. The budget also includes increases for the National Health Service Corps. The National Institutes of Health receives a small (1.4 %) increase and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is level funded.
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- The President released the broad parameters of his FY 2010 budget on 02/26/09 and the detailed version on 05/07/09.
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| Updated: 8/5/2009 |
FY 2010 Appropriations
- On 12/13/09, the FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill was approved by the Senate as part of an omnibus spending bill, which included six other spending bills, by a vote of 57-35 and became public law (PL 111-117) on 12/16/09. The FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill provides $163.6 billion in discretionary funding, an $8.5 billion increase over fiscal year 2009, excluding stimulus funds. The FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill funded many key programs under Title VII, including: Training in Primary Care Medicine and General Dentistry - $54,425,000 (+8,000,000); Centers of Excellence - $24,602,000 (+4,000,000); and Health Careers Opportunities Program - $22,133,000 (+3,000,000) Additionally, the bill funded the National Health Service Corps at $142,000,000, a $7 million increase over fiscal year 2009.
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- The House and Senate have passed and the President has signed into law a continuing resolution (CR) for FY 2010 that extends funding for key programs at FY 2009 levels through October 31, 2009. House and Senate subcommittee staffs are working behind the scenes to create a final version of the FY 2010 bill. Current plans call for the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill to be combined with at least one other bill and brought to the House and Senate floors prior to the expiration of the CR. While exact funding levels are not yet known, based on the similarities in the bills, it is expected to be at the levels requested by the President.
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- The House of Representatives passed on 07/24/09 and the Senate Appropriations Committee released on 07/30/09 their respective versions of the FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bills. Both the House and the Senate have accepted the increases in key Title VII programs sought by the White House, indicating that – if the bill is enacted rather than a continuing resolution – the programs will be funded as follows: Training in Primary Care Medicine and General Dentistry – $56,425,000 (+$8,000,000); Centers of Excellence – $24,602,000 (+$4,000,000); Health Careers Opportunities Program – $22,133,000 (+$3,000,000). FY 2010 marks the first time since the Carter administration that any President – Republican or Democrat – has requested funding for all Title VII programs in his budget request to Congress.
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- AACOM signed the NHSC stakeholder letter of 06/17/09, to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, urging them to appropriate $235 million to the NHSC in FY 2010. This is $66 million more than the President’s budget request. The letter, which can be found at http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/workforce/corres/2009/061809.pdf, cited the importance of the program in addressing the current workforce shortage.
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| Updated: 02/16/2010 |
Small Business Innovation Research Reauthorization
- On 07/09/09, AACOM joined other higher education associations, patient advocacy organizations, scientific and professional societies, and research institutions in signing a letter supporting the House version of the reauthorization legislation because it does not include a provision contained in the Senate version that proposed a mandatory increase in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program allocation across agencies that will necessarily result in funding cuts for the peer-reviewed research conducted by other organizations. The letter, which can be found at http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/2009/July-December/SBIR_Community_B%207%2007%2009.pdf, expressed support for SBIR research and asked that Congress work with the Obama administration to increase support for all types of research. AACOM also signed a letter, dated 06/23/09, to the Senate, opposing the increase in SBIR allocation approved by a Senate committee: http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/2009/SBIR_community_final.6.24.09.pdf
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| Posted: 8/5/2009 |
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