Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB935 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 935
5	5	To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a health care
6	6	workforce innovation program.
7	7	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8	8	FEBRUARY4, 2025
9	9	Mr. G
10	10	ARBARINO(for himself, Ms. SCHRIER, Mr. VALADAO, and Ms. CRAIG)
11	11	introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En-
12	12	ergy and Commerce
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for
15	15	a health care workforce innovation program.
16	16	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
17	17	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
18	18	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
19	19	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Care Workforce 4
20	20	Innovation Act of 2025’’. 5
21	21	SEC. 2. HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE INNOVATION PRO-6
22	22	GRAM. 7
23	23	Section 755(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 8
24	24	U.S.C. 294e(b)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-9
25	25	lowing: 10
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28	28	•HR 935 IH
29	29	‘‘(5)(A) Supporting and developing new innova-1
30	30	tive, community-driven approaches for the education 2
31	31	and training of allied health professionals, including 3
32	32	those described in subparagraph (F)(i), with an em-4
33	33	phasis on expanding the supply of such professionals 5
34	34	located in, and meeting the needs of, underserved 6
35	35	communities and rural areas. Grants or contracts 7
36	36	under this paragraph shall be awarded through a 8
37	37	new program (referred to as the ‘Health Care Work-9
38	38	force Innovation Program’ or in this paragraph as 10
39	39	the ‘Program’). 11
40	40	‘‘(B) To be eligible to receive a grant or con-12
41	41	tract under the Program an entity shall— 13
42	42	‘‘(i) be a Federally qualified health center 14
43	43	(as defined in section 1905(l)(2)(B) of the So-15
44	44	cial Security Act), a State-level association or 16
45	45	other consortium that represents and is com-17
46	46	prised of Federally qualified health centers, a 18
47	47	certified rural health clinic that meets the re-19
48	48	quirements of section 334, or an accredited, 20
49	49	nonprofit post-secondary vocational program 21
50	50	that trains allied health professionals to work in 22
51	51	primary care settings; and 23
52	52	‘‘(ii) submit to the Secretary an application 24
53	53	that, at a minimum, contains— 25
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56	56	•HR 935 IH
57	57	‘‘(I) a description of how all trainees 1
58	58	will be trained in accredited training pro-2
59	59	grams either directly or through partner-3
60	60	ships with public or nonprofit private enti-4
61	61	ties, such as schools of allied health; 5
62	62	‘‘(II) a description of the community- 6
63	63	driven health care workforce innovation 7
64	64	model to be carried out under the grant or 8
65	65	contract, including the specific allied health 9
66	66	professions to be funded; 10
67	67	‘‘(III) the geographic service area that 11
68	68	will be served, including quantitative data, 12
69	69	if available, showing that such particular 13
70	70	area faces a shortage of allied health pro-14
71	71	fessionals and lacks access to health care; 15
72	72	‘‘(IV) a description of the benefits 16
73	73	provided to each health care professional 17
74	74	trained under the proposed model during 18
75	75	the education and training phase; 19
76	76	‘‘(V) a description of the experience 20
77	77	that the applicant has in the recruitment, 21
78	78	retention, and promotion of the well-being 22
79	79	of workers and volunteers; 23
80	80	‘‘(VI) a description of how the fund-24
81	81	ing awarded under the Program will sup-25
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84	84	•HR 935 IH
85	85	plement rather than supplant existing 1
86	86	funding; 2
87	87	‘‘(VII) a description of the scalability 3
88	88	and replicability of the community-driven 4
89	89	approach to be funded under the Program; 5
90	90	‘‘(VIII) a description of the infra-6
91	91	structure, outreach and communication 7
92	92	plan, and other program support costs re-8
93	93	quired to operationalize the proposed 9
94	94	model; and 10
95	95	‘‘(IX) any other information, as the 11
96	96	Secretary determines appropriate. 12
97	97	‘‘(C)(i) An entity shall use amounts received 13
98	98	under a grant or contract awarded under the Pro-14
99	99	gram to carry out the innovative, community-driven 15
100	100	model described in the application under subpara-16
101	101	graph (B). Such amounts may be used for launching 17
102	102	new or expanding existing innovative health care 18
103	103	professional partnerships, including the following 19
104	104	specific uses: 20
105	105	‘‘(I) Establishing or expanding a partner-21
106	106	ship between such entity and 1 or more high 22
107	107	schools, accredited public or nonprofit private 23
108	108	vocational-technical schools, accredited public or 24
109	109	nonprofit private 2-year colleges, area health 25
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112	112	•HR 935 IH
113	113	education centers, and entities with clinical set-1
114	114	tings for the provision of education and training 2
115	115	opportunities not available at the grantee’s fa-3
116	116	cilities. 4
117	117	‘‘(II) Providing education and training 5
118	118	programs to improve allied health professionals’ 6
119	119	readiness in settings that serve underserved 7
120	120	communities and rural areas; encouraging stu-8
121	121	dents from underserved and disadvantaged 9
122	122	backgrounds and former patients to consider 10
123	123	careers in health care, and better reflecting and 11
124	124	meeting community needs; providing education 12
125	125	and training programs for individuals to work 13
126	126	in patient-centered, team-based, community- 14
127	127	driven health care models that include integra-15
128	128	tion with other clinical practitioners and train-16
129	129	ing in cultural and linguistic competence; pro-17
130	130	viding pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship 18
131	131	programs for health care technical, support, 19
132	132	and entry-level occupations, particularly for 20
133	133	those enrolled in dual or concurrent enrollment 21
134	134	programs; building a preceptorship training-to- 22
135	135	practice model for medical, behavioral health, 23
136	136	oral health, and public health disciplines in an 24
137	137	integrated, community-driven setting; providing 25
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140	140	•HR 935 IH
141	141	and expanding internships, career ladders, and 1
142	142	development opportunities for health care pro-2
143	143	fessionals, including new and existing staff; or 3
144	144	investing in training equipment, supplies, and 4
145	145	limited renovations or retrofitting of training 5
146	146	space needed for grantees to carry out their 6
147	147	particular model. 7
148	148	‘‘(ii) Amounts received under a grant or con-8
149	149	tract awarded under the Program shall not be used 9
150	150	to support construction costs or to supplant funding 10
151	151	from existing programs that support the applicant’s 11
152	152	health workforce. 12
153	153	‘‘(iii) Models funded under the Program shall 13
154	154	be for a duration of at least 3 years. 14
155	155	‘‘(D) In awarding grants or contracts under the 15
156	156	Program, the Secretary shall give priority to appli-16
157	157	cants that will use grant or contract funds to sup-17
158	158	port workforce innovation models that increase the 18
159	159	number of individuals from underserved and dis-19
160	160	advantaged backgrounds working in such health care 20
161	161	professions, improve access to health care (including 21
162	162	medical, behavioral health and oral health) in under-22
163	163	served communities, or demonstrate that the model 23
164	164	can be replicated in other underserved communities 24
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167	167	•HR 935 IH
168	168	in a cost-efficient and effective manner to achieve 1
169	169	the purposes of the Program. 2
170	170	‘‘(E) An entity that receives a grant or contract 3
171	171	under the Program shall provide periodic reports to 4
172	172	the Secretary detailing the findings and outcomes of 5
173	173	the innovative, community-driven model carried out 6
174	174	under the grant. Such reports shall contain informa-7
175	175	tion in a manner and at such times as determined 8
176	176	appropriate by the Secretary. 9
177	177	‘‘(F) In this paragraph: 10
178	178	‘‘(i) The term ‘allied health professional’ 11
179	179	includes individuals who provide clinical support 12
180	180	services, including medical assistants, dental as-13
181	181	sistants, dental hygienists, dental therapists, 14
182	182	pharmacy technicians, physical therapists, phys-15
183	183	ical therapist assistants, and health care inter-16
184	184	preters; individuals providing non-clinical sup-17
185	185	port, such as billing and coding professionals 18
186	186	and health information technology profes-19
187	187	sionals; dieticians; medical technologists; emer-20
188	188	gency medical technicians; community health 21
189	189	workers; health education specialists; health 22
190	190	care paraprofessionals; and peer support spe-23
191	191	cialists. 24
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194	194	•HR 935 IH
195	195	‘‘(ii) The term ‘rural area’ has the mean-1
196	196	ing given such term by the Administrator of the 2
197	197	Health Resources and Services Administration. 3
198	198	‘‘(iii) The term ‘underserved communities’ 4
199	199	means areas, population groups, and facilities 5
200	200	designated as health professional shortage areas 6
201	201	under section 332, medically underserved areas 7
202	202	as defined under section 330I(a), or medically 8
203	203	underserved populations as defined under sec-9
204	204	tion 330(b)(3). 10
205	205	‘‘(G)(i) There are authorized to be appropriated 11
206	206	such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal 12
207	207	years 2026 through 2028, to carry out this para-13
208	208	graph, to remain available until expended. 14
209	209	‘‘(ii) A grant or contract provided under the 15
210	210	Program shall not exceed $2,500,000 for a grant pe-16
211	211	riod.’’. 17
212	212	Æ
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