Photo: Doug Mills/Getty Images
The Biden Administration on Thursday said it planned to invest $7.4 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to hire and train more public health workers with the goal of being better prepared for future pandemics.
The funding is intended to expand the country s public health workforce and strengthen the national infrastructure by creating what the administration expects will be tens of thousands of jobs. These jobs will support vaccinations, testing, contact tracing and community outreach.
Spurred largely by the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the plan calls for $4.4 billion in funds to be directed to states and localities to expand their public health departments with additional staff to support coronavirus response efforts. The funding will either create or support public health roles, including disease intervention specialists who perform contact tracing, case management and outbreak investigations.
05/13/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/13/2021 08:49
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration to Invest $7 Billion from American Rescue Plan to Hire and Train Public Health Workers in Response to COVID-19
Funding Will Create Tens of Thousands of Jobs to Respond to COVID-19, Prepare U.S. for Future Outbreaks, and Support Local Public Health Officials
As Vaccine for Adolescents Comes Online, Administration Sets Aside Dedicated Funding for School Nurses, Who Can Help Provide Information about Vaccinations
As part of its ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration will invest $7.4 billion from the American Rescue Plan to recruit and hire public health workers to respond to the pandemic and prepare for future public health challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced that public health workers are essential, providing critical services to keep Americans safe and healthy. The funding announced today will allow the United States to expand its
EHR Adoption is Essential for Outpatient Surgery to Remain Relevant in Managed Care
by Tara Vail, Chief Growth Officer at HST Pathways
Tara Vail, Chief Growth Officer at HST Pathways
In 2009, hospitals and doctors were given financial incentives to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) were not eligible for these funds, and were therefore not incentivized like the rest of the healthcare system to implement the technology. The consequence of that differentiation is that the majority of ASCs are still charting on paper, even while the rest of the health system has moved to digital records.
ONC taking submissions for new interoperability initiative
Modern Healthcare Illustration / Getty Images
HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Thursday launched its latest interoperability effort, designed to identify aspirational yet achievable interoperability goals for the industry to rally around over the next decade.
The new initiative, dubbed Health Interoperability Outcomes 2030, comes on the heels of ONC s decision last week to sunset a 10-year interoperability roadmap that the agency launched in 2015. At the time, ONC officials said that while the industry had made solid progress on many of the roadmap s milestones, the roadmap itself no longer drives our work.