The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recently announced $661 million in grant opportunities and awards to upgrade state and local public health initiatives. The grants are authorized under provisions of the federal health care reform law and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). On September 17, HHS announced $130.8 million in Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants for primary care and dental workforce training, health career opportunities programs, and outreach/chronic disease prevention programs. Then, on September 20, HHS announced $42.5 million in Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants for state and local public health departments. HHS announced another $67.7 million in funding from the CDC on September 24 for state and local public health programs (on health IT in state health departments, HIV/AIDS, obesity prevention, and smoking cessation) as well as $26.2 million in funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) to expand primary care for individuals with behavioral health conditions. On September 27, HHS announced another $253 million in HRSA grants for primary care residency expansion, training of physician assistants, advanced nurse education, nurse managed primary care clinics, personal and home care assistant training, and state health workforce development; $68 million in grants, administered jointly by the Administration on Aging (AoA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to state and local organizations to help aged and disabled persons make informed choices about their long-term care options; and $67 million in grants from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) for health professional training for low-income persons. Many of the health care reform and ARRA grant opportunities are competitive, demanding strong proposals from state and local organizations.

About Tom Entrikin

A former policy specialist with the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration (now Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)), Tom Entrikin has vast experience providing technical assistance to states on Medicaid eligibility, coverage, and reimbursement; provider certification and enrollment; program integrity; recovery of third party liabilities; Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) performance specifications and operations; interagency agreements; contracts with managed care organizations; and Medicaid waiver programs.

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