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ACU Policy & Advocacy Update: The President’s FY24 Budget and the Healthcare Workforce 

03-14-2023 14:20

The President’s FY24 Budget and the Healthcare Workforce

Last Thursday, President Joe Biden released his Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Budget outlining his Administration’s chief fiscal priorities and requests for funding, including those for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s workforce programs. The document is not a finalized federal budget: rather, it’s a request that must be negotiated and approved by Congress via the appropriations process. However, it is an important starting point that signals the Administration’s priorities.

The proposed budget would provide $2.7 billion in mandatory and discretionary resources for HRSA’s workforce programs. View the full HHS FY 2024 Budget in Brief for more details and read our quick recap highlighting the budget’s asks for HRSA’s largest initiatives for strengthening and expanding the workforce. Stay tuned, also, for future updates from ACU on this evolving process and join us as an advocate to keep up-to date!

National Health Service Corps (NHSC)

The proposed budget would provide $965.6 million for National Health Service Corps scholarships and loan repayment to clinicians in return for practicing in underserved areas. In 2022, NHSC programs made it possible for 20,215 clinicians to practice in underserved communities, but mandatory and discretionary funding for NHSC is set to expire in FY23.

The proposed budget would help sustain the historic growth in the Corps after a significant funding increase from the American Rescue Plan. As our country faces a massive health workforce shortage, this proposed investment would ensure that the NHSC’s field strength continues to grow. The budget extends mandatory funding over three years through FY26 at an annual amount of $790 million. The proposed $176 million in discretionary funding is $50 million above FY23 enacted levels, and we are pleased to see the Administration take up ACU’s proposed budgetary ask to support and expand this vital program.

Teaching Health Center Graduate Education Program

$157 million in mandatory funding over three years, through FY26, to support over 2,000 resident slots at teaching health centers by 2026 that would increase primary care physicians and dental residents nationwide and expand community-based training.

Behavioral Health Workforce Development

$387.4 million, which is $190 million above FY23 enacted levels, to train 18,000 more behavioral health providers to help respond to the mental health and substance use crisis currently affecting our country.

Nursing Workforce Development

$349.9 million, which is $49.5 million above FY23 enacted levels, to strengthen nursing workforce capacity by training and providing education assistance to nurses. The budget includes an additional $32 million to expand, enhance, and modernize nursing education programs. Furthermore, the budget includes an increase of $17 million for Advanced Nursing Education to grow and diversify the maternal and perinatal health nursing workforce by increasing the number of Certified Nurse Midwives, with a focus on practitioners working in rural and underserved communities.

Health Workforce Innovation

$27.5 million to fund innovative approaches that address healthcare workforce shortages by recruiting, supporting, and training new providers, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of medically underserved communities.

Supporting the Mental Health and Wellness of the Health Professions Workforce

$25 million, in support of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, for a new program to aid the development of a culture of wellness in healthcare facilities including hospitals, rural health clinics, community health centers and medical professional associations.

President’s FY24 Budget: Health Workforce at-a-Glance

The table is in millions of dollars.


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