Public health departments, hospitals and other health care organizations will receive $1.1 billion in aid from the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen their ability to respond to public health and medical emergencies as a result of a terrorism attack or naturally occurring event.
According to reports, the HHS funding is awarded via two separate but interrelated cooperative agreements.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing a total of $704.8 million in funding to health departments in states, territories and metropolitan areas of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C., through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement. The HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response also is awarding $398 million through the Hospital Preparedness Program.
The CDC-provided funds are intended to upgrade public health departments' preparedness and response to all hazards and public health emergencies including terrorism, as well as pandemic influenza and other naturally occurring emergencies.
Officials say that these funds will be used to meet goals that include integrating public health and public and private medical capabilities with other first responder systems; addressing the public health and medical needs of at-risk individuals (such as children, or people with chronic medical disorders) in the event of a public health emergency; and assuring coordination among state, local and tribal planning, preparedness, and response activities.
The ASPR-awarded funds are being provided to states, territories and the metro areas of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C. The goal, according to HHS, is to strengthen medical surge capability across the nation. Recipients will use the funds to finalize development or improve interoperable communication systems, systems to track available hospital beds, advance registration of volunteer health professionals, processes for hospital evacuations or sheltering-in-place, processes for fatality management and for strengthening healthcare partnerships at the community level.
The provisions of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act provide accountability of the use of the HPP and PHEP funds. The HHS said that these funds can be withheld from awardees if they fail to meet established state level performance measures. HHS plans to begin implementing these provisions this year.
"States and local communities need to be supported because they are the front lines of response in a health emergency," said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. "These funds will continue to enhance community readiness by increasing the capabilities of health departments, hospitals and health care delivery systems to respond to any public health emergency."