Sebelius announces $42.5 million for public health improvement programs through the Affordable Care Act

$399,836 to Georgia State Department of Community Health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today (September 20) announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded funding for 94 projects totaling $42.5 million to state, tribal, local and territorial health departments to improve their ability to provide public health services. This funding, made possible through the new Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act, will be distributed through cooperative agreements to 49 states, eight federally recognized tribes, Washington, D.C., nine large local health departments, five territories, and three Affiliated Pacific Island jurisdictions to maximize public health efforts.

“These funds will help health departments around the country to improve the quality and effectiveness of the critical health services that millions of Americans rely on every day,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Strengthening our public health system through better coordination and collaboration will help to deliver higher quality health care more efficiently.”

This new 5-year cooperative agreement program entitled, Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure for Improved Health Outcomes, will provide health departments with needed resources to make fundamental changes in their organizations and practices, so that they can improve the delivery of public health services including:

- Building and implementing capacity within health departments for evaluating the effectiveness of their organizations, practices, partnerships, programs and use of resources through performance management

- Expansion and training of public health staff and community leaders to conduct policy activities in key areas and to facilitate improvements in system efficiency

-Maximizing the public health system to improve networking, coordination, and cross-jurisdictional cooperation for the delivery of public health services to address resource sharing and improve health indicators

-Disseminating, implementing and evaluating public health’s best and most promising practices

- Building a national network of performance improvement managers that share best practices for improving the public health system.

“Investing in public health builds a foundation for a strong and healthy society and contributes to lowering the cost of health care. Investing in proven preventive services and strong policies helps us to avoid unnecessary costs later,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

“These funds are a down payment on improving public health services across the nation,” said Dr. Judith A. Monroe, CDC’s deputy director for state, tribal, local and territorial support. “With these funds, we will help our nation’s public health departments work more effectively and efficiently to detect and respond to public health problems. This program will strengthen the nation’s public health system and our ability to improve the health and well being of all Americans.”

In response to the CDC’s original funding announcement Public Health Systems and Infrastructure projects in July 2010, CDC received more than 140 applications from health departments seeking funds through this cooperative agreement. For more information, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/ostlts

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HHS Awards $31 million more for prevention and wellness projects

Funded by the Affordable Care Act of 2010

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced $31 million for awards to ten communities in eight states and one award to a state health department to support public health efforts to reduce obesity and smoking, increase physical activity and improve nutrition.
The awards funded by the Prevention and Public Health Fund included in the Affordable Care Act are part of the HHS Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program, a comprehensive prevention and wellness initiative administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"As I've seen throughout the year in my work with Let's Move!, prevention works when it comes to improving the health of our families," said First Lady Michelle Obama. "These critical investments will help more communities across America tackle serious health challenges like childhood obesity, while promoting physical activity and healthy eating."

Today's announcement follows the release in February and March 2010 of more than $491.8 million in Communities Putting Prevention to Work funds to states, U.S territories and communities. Those projects are supporting statewide and community based policy and environmental changes in nutrition, physical activity, tobacco control, expanded tobacco quit lines, and cessation media campaigns.

"To realize our goals of improving the health of Americans and lowering our nation's health care costs, we must address the underlying factors that influence our families' health - factors like the foods we eat and the conditions that exist in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "With Communities Putting Prevention to Work, we're creating evidence-based models that we can replicate on a large scale to permanently reduce the chronic diseases plaguing so many of our communities."

These Communities Putting Prevention to Work awards will provide communities with the resources to create healthy choices for residents, such as increasing availability of healthy foods and beverages, improving access to safe places for physical activity, discouraging tobacco use, and encouraging smoke-free environments. Of the 11 new awards, ten are dedicated to obesity prevention efforts and one to tobacco cessation.

Currently, seven of ten deaths among Americans each year are caused by chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. These same chronic diseases account for more than 75% of our nation's health care spending.

HHS also announced $10 million in additional funding for six communities - all of which were part of the original 44 Communities Putting Prevention to Work communities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) - to provide mentoring to less experienced communities based on their previous success in specific policy strategies. Funding for the "Community Mentoring" initiative comes from ARRA.

Awards:

Communities Putting Prevention to Work Community Initiative

. $3.0 Million to Alabama Department of Health: Mobile County, Alabama for tobacco prevention
. $2.3 Million to Arkansas Department of Health: City of North Little Rock, Arkansas for obesity prevention; and Independence County, Arkansas for obesity prevention
. $5.8 Million to Children's Memorial Hospital / City of Chicago, Illinois for obesity prevention
. $2.35 Million to DeKalb County Board of Health, Georgia for obesity prevention
. $3.7 Million to North Carolina Division of Public Health: Appalachian District Health Department, North Carolina for obesity prevention; and Pitt County, North Carolina for obesity prevention
. $4.85 Million to Pinellas County Health Department, Florida for obesity prevention
. $3.6 Million to Santa Clara County Public Health Department, California for obesity prevention
. $3.8 Million to Southern Nevada Health District, Nevada for obesity prevention

Note: The five small city/rural awards are administered through three state departments of health (Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina).

Communities Putting Prevention to Work States and Territories Competitive Special Policy and Environmental Change Initiative

. $1.6 Million to South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control for obesity prevention

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