Health Care, Research Benefit from Funds

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderPolicy Analysis1 May 2009Health Care, Research Benefit from Funds Ingrida Lusis and Sharon MossPhD Ingrida Lusis Google Scholar More articles by this author and Sharon Moss Google Scholar More articles by this author , PhD https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.PA.14062009.1 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In More than $87 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds is targeted at health care-related activities, including allocations to the National Institutes of Health (for biomedical scientific research, to construct and improve research facilities, and to purchase scientific equipment), Medicaid, hospitals and community health centers, and improved health information technology (HIT). The ARRA investments in health care include $87 billion in additional federal matching funds to help states provide health care services to Medicaid beneficiaries. The bill also extends through June 30 the current moratorium on four Medicaid regulations related to provider taxes, targeted case management services, school-based services, and outpatient hospital services. ARRA also urges the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) not to finalize proposed regulations related to cost limits on public providers and regulations defining Medicaid’s rehabilitative services. To encourage more health professionals to move toward electronic health care billing, ARRA provides approximately $19 billion for Medicare and Medicaid HIT incentives over five years. As part of the law, HHS would establish the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to develop policies and standards to promote the development of a nationwide inter-operable HIT infrastructure. The law also provides financial incentives and grant opportunities to encourage Medicare and Medicaid providers to adopt HIT standards, which may include a requirement to report quality data. Other health care provisions include: Prevention and wellness: $1 billion in funding for wellness and prevention programs Community health centers: $1.5 billion for construction, renovation, equipment, and acquisition of HIT systems for community health centers, and $500 million for services Indian Health Service facilities: $415 million to modernize aging hospitals and clinics and make health care technology upgrades to improve care HHS has developed a Web site that provides up-to-date information on health-related provisions of the stimulus package. Research Funding The stimulus package provides a total of $10.4 billion in research funding to the National Institutes of Health to be used in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Of this amount, $8.2 billion will go to research funding, $1 billion to construction and renovation of extramural research facilities, and $300 million to the acquisition of shared instrumentation and other capital research equipment. NIH expects to allocate resources to several major activities: Awards to recently peer-reviewed, highly meritorious R01 applications, and new R01 and other activity codes that have a reasonable expectation of making progress within two years Competitive supplements to expand the scope of current research or support additional infrastructure Non-competitive supplements to accelerate ongoing science The new NIH Challenge Grant program Other funding mechanisms as appropriate To learn more about NIH’s role in ARRA visit the NIH Web site. For funding opportunities supported by the ARRA, visit the NIH Web site and NIH’s OER Web site. Additional Resources Related to Research Funding To learn more about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and funding opportunities relevant to ASHA’s scientific community, visit the following Web sites: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities National Institute on Aging National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research National Institute of Mental Health National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Department of Veterans Affairs Department of Education National Science Foundation Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Author Notes Ingrida Lusis, director of federal and political advocacy, can be reached at [email protected]. Sharon Moss, PhD, director of scientific programs and research development, can be reached at [email protected]. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 14Issue 6May 2009 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: May 1, 2009 Metrics Downloaded 57 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2009 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...