Fed Allots $250 Mil for Building Health Care Workforce

This week the Department of Health and Human Services devoted $250 million in federal funding for attracting and training medical professionals, with a portion of the money to reach students and professionals opting to serve urban areas.

We here at the School of Public Health welcome this first allotment from the Prevention and Public Health fund, a result of the recent health care overhaul. As a recent member of the Maryland Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, we are fully aware of the need for primary care practitioners, including public health practitioners to address health problems of our society. These problems are intensified by the fact that diversity among the health care field is not increasing at the same rate as the rest of the country's population.

Last month, Dean Gold joined reps from other academic health institutions and historically black schools, signing a formal agreement to address these issues. The Alliance, also called the Sullivan Alliance, is headed up by former Health and Human Services secretary Dr. Louis W. Sullivan. It aims to raise awareness about the value of racial and ethnic diversity in the health profession, and to achieve diversity through information dissemination and stimulating academic programs.

Here's a clip from a Washington Post article this week, detailing the Health and Human Services announcement and how severe the shortage may be:

"Without action, HHS said, the nation would face a shortage of 21,000 primary-care clinicians.

"But an analyst for the Association of American Medical Colleges suggested that the number, which includes doctors, nurses and others, is probably much greater than that. The organization projects a shortage of 42,000 primary-care doctors in 2020 and 47,000 in 2025."

Read the rest of the article here. You can also find the HHS announcement here.