House Passes Health Workforce Training Bills

This week the House of Representatives passed four bills to provide health care workforce training and medical education:

• H.R. 1676, the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, would direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants to train health care workers in palliative care. It also would create a national awareness campaign about the benefits and services of palliative care. The bill would authorize $49.1 million a year for five years.
• H.R. 3728, the Educating Medical Professionals and Optimizing Workforce Efficiency Readiness Act, would reauthorize various programs to support loan repayment and provider training in primary care, dentistry, rural or underserved areas, and community-based settings.
• H.R. 5385, the Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act, would reauthorize the Children’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program at $330 million a year for five years. The program funds children’s hospitals' medical education programs, since those hospitals don't receive significant Medicare direct or indirect GME payments.
• H.R. 959, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act, would reauthorize nursing workforce programs aimed at recruiting and educating those providers. It also would extend education grants to support clinical nurse specialists and clinical nurse leaders.

All four bills came out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and now move on to the Senate, most likely to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.