HHS Announces $750 Million Investment in Prevention

Image via Wikipedia
New health care law provides new funding to reduce tobacco use, obesity and heart disease, and build healthier communities

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced a $750 million investment in prevention and public health, funded through the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the new health care law.  Building on $500 million in investments last year, these new dollars will help prevent tobacco use, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer; increase immunizations; and empower individuals and communities with tools and resources for local prevention and health initiatives.

"Prevention is something that can't just happen in a doctor's office.  If we are to address the big health issues of our time, from physical inactivity to poor nutrition to tobacco use, it needs to happen in local communities," said Sebelius.  "This investment is going to build on the prevention work already under way to help make sure that we are working effectively across the federal government as well as with private groups and state and local governments to help Americans live longer, healthier lives."


The Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act, is designed to expand and sustain the necessary capacity to prevent disease, detect it early, manage conditions before they become severe, and provide states and communities the resources they need to promote healthy living.  In FY2010, $500 million of the Prevention Fund was distributed to states and communities to boost prevention and public health efforts, improve health, enhance health care quality, and foster the next generation of primary health professionals.  Today, HHS posted new fact sheets detailing how that $500 million was allocated in every state. Those fact sheets are available at www.HealthCare.gov/news/factsheets/prevention02092011a.html. 

This year, building on the initial investment, new funds are dedicated to expanding on four critical priorities:

. Community Prevention ($298 million): These funds will be used to help promote health and wellness in local communities, including efforts to prevent and reduce tobacco use; improve nutrition and increase physical activity to prevent obesity; and coordinate and focus efforts to prevent chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

. Clinical Prevention ($182 million): These funds will help improve access to preventive care, including increasing awareness of the new prevention benefits provided under the new health care law.  They will also help increase availability and use of immunizations, and help integrate behavioral health services into primary care settings.

. Public Health Infrastructure ($137 million): These funds will help state and local health departments meet 21st century challenges, including investments in information technology and training for the public health workforce to enable detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks and other health threats.

. Research and Tracking ($133 million): These funds will help collect data to monitor the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the health of Americans and identify and disseminate evidence-based recommendations on important public health challenges. 

The Obama Administration recognizes the importance of a broad approach to addressing the health and well-being of our communities. Other initiatives put forth by the Obama Administration to promote prevention include:

. The President's Childhood Obesity Task Force and the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative aimed at combating childhood obesity.

. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that provides $1 billion for community-based initiatives, tobacco cessation activities, chronic disease reduction programs, and efforts to reduce healthcare-acquired infections.

. The Affordable Care Act's National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, composed of senior government officials, charged with designing a National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy.

For more information about the FY2011 Prevention and Public Health Fund investments, visit www.HealthCare.gov/news/factsheets/prevention02092011b.html.

CLAS Standard Public Comment

The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health is seeking public input from individuals and professional communities across the country for the CLAS (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services) Standards Enhancement Initiative.  This initiative is an effort to make enhancements to the National Standards for CLAS in Health Care, first released in 2000.  The goal of the enhancement process is to maximize access in gathering public input and stakeholder dialogue to ensure that the CLAS Standards serve the health needs of everyone. 

To submit your comments electronically or attend a public comment session, go to: https://clasenhancements.thinkculturalhealth.org/. 

To access a copy of the CLAS Standards, go to: http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=15

For more information, please contact Leslie Swann at Leslie.Swann@aoa.hhs.gov or 202-357-3453.   

Assessment of the Sustainability and Impact of Community Coalitions Once Federal Funding Has Expired

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is requesting Office of Management and Budget (OMB)approval on a new collection to conduct a survey of community coalitions formerly funded by the Community Access Program (CAP)/Healthy Communities Access Program (HCAP) to learn about their sustainability and impact post-federal funding. ASPE will use the CAP/HCAP experience to examine the long-term sustainability of coalitions that successfully completed for grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

As part of the study, a one-time,self-administered survey will be administered to the 260 coalitions funded through CAP/HCAP, providing a unique set of data to assess coalition sustainability and the factors that enable and hinder sustainability. The survey will focus on CAP/HCAP coalitions'structure, funding, activities, impact, and outcomes post-funding. The survey design and content is informed by a review of the literature on community coalitions including coalition organization, functions, impact, and sustainability. Results from the survey will also inform the selection of sites for key informant interviews and site visits. Specifically, telephone interviews will occur with a subset of 20 CAP/HCAP coalitions that have been sustained as well as 20 CAP/HCAP coalitions that have not been sustained. The key informant interviews will utilize a structured instrument tailored to the coalitions' experiences. Site visits will be conducted with seven coalitions that were sustained post-funding. Data collection activities will be completed within 18 months of OMB Clearance.

Read Entire Notice

Why We Don’t Spend Enough on Public Health | Health Care Reform Center

by David Hemenway, Ph.D. in New England Journal of Medicine

The field of public health has long been the poor relation of medicine. Medicine — in which most resources are used to help cure individual patients after they have become sick or injured or to help manage already-existing chronic conditions — is flashy, its master practitioners and innovators lionized, and its accomplishments widely celebrated. In contrast, public health — in which most resources are focused on trying to keep something bad from happening in the first place — is seemingly mundane, its efforts and prime movers often all but invisible.

Medicine is primarily a private good — the patient receives the main benefit of any care provided. Payments usually come from the individual patient and, in the developed world, from private and governmental insurance. Public health, on the other hand, provides public goods — such as a good sewer system — and relies almost exclusively on government funding. It is generally acknowledged that public health is systematically underfunded and that shifting resources at the margin from cures to prevention could reduce the population’s morbidity and mortality. I believe there are four key reasons for such underfunding.
Continue Reading

Living fast? Scientists show lifespan is linked to DNA | Science | guardian.co.uk

by Ian Sample

Scientists have isolated a gene sequence that appears to determine how fast our bodies age, the first time a link between DNA and human lifespan has been found.

The discovery could have a profound impact on public health and raises the best hope yet for drugs that prevent the biological wear and tear behind common age-related conditions such as heart disease and certain cancers.

The work is expected to pave the way for screening programmes to spot people who are likely to age fast and be more susceptible to heart problems and other conditions early in life. People who test positive for the gene variant in their 20s could be put on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and encouraged to exercise, eat healthily and avoid smoking.

Continue Reading

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gene mutation speeds up the aging process (msnbc.msn.com)

Hospitalization, Death From H1N1 Influenza Can Occur at Any Age

by Fran Lowry

H1N1 influenza is emerging as an equal-opportunity threat, seriously affecting people of all ages — not just younger people, as had been thought — according to the results of a surveillance study from California published in the November 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Pandemic influenza A(H1N1) emerged rapidly in California in April 2009," write Janice K. Louie, MD, MPH, from the California Department of Public Health, Richmond, and colleagues. "Preliminary comparisons with seasonal influenza suggest that pandemic 2009 influenza A(H1N1) disproportionately affects younger ages and causes generally mild disease."

However, data on the clinical features and populations at risk for complications from H1N1 influenza infection are still emerging, the authors add.
.................
The highest hospitalization rates per 100,000 were in infants 1 month old (35.8) and 2 months old (21.1). These rates were lower in infants aged between 3 and 12 months, ranging from 4.2 to 12.6 per 100,000.

The median length of stay in hospital was 4 days.

Although infants were hospitalized at greater rates than adults, individuals aged 50 years or older had the highest rate of death once hospitalized, the authors report.

The overall fatality rate was 11%. In children younger than 18 years, the death rate was 7%, and in persons older than 50 years, it was 18% to 20%.
Read More