Federal FY2011 budget requests $911B for HHS

Image source: www.whitehouse.gov

The administration of President Barack Obama is requesting $911 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in its 2011 federal budget proposal, with an additional $110 million requested for continued health IT efforts.

The budget expands support for biomedical research by increasing the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $1 billion to $32.1 billion, which incudes funding to initiate 30 new drug trials in 2011. This will double the number of novel compounds in Phase 1 – 3 clinical trials by 2016 and would support the completion of a catalog of cancer mutations for the 20 most common malignancies.

Other budgetary highlights include:

• $110 million for continuing efforts to strengthen health IT policy, coordination and research activities, including programs designed to assist providers with adoption of meaningful use of EHRs.
• $2.5 billion for health centers to provide affordable high-quality primary and preventive care to underserved populations, including the uninsured. This will allow health centers to continue to provide care to the two million additional patients they served under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and support approximately 25 new health centers sites, according to HHS. 
• $169 million in the National Health Service Corps to place providers in medically underserved areas to improve access to needed healthcare services. In 2011, the requested increase will add 400 NHSC clinicians who will provide essential primary and preventative care services across the country.
• $10 million to improve workforce capacity of state and local departments.
• $20 million to fund a new effort in up to 10 of the largest U.S. cities to reduce the rates of morbidity and disability due to chronic disease.
• $10 million for the federal employee workplace wellness initiative to implement prototype wellness programs in select locations, which will be evaluated for their ability to produce a healthier workforce and lower healthcare costs.
• $25.5 billion to support state Medicaid programs by temporarily increasing federal Medicaid funding for six months through June 2011.

HHS also developed high-priority performance goals that the department plans to work to accomplish over the next two years in the budget:

• Establish the infrastructure necessary to encourage the adoption and meaningful use of health IT.
• Increase the number of low-income children receiving federal support for access to high-quality early care and education settings.
• Increase enrollment in the Children’s Health Insurance Program by 7 percent from 2008 to 2011.
• Decrease by 10 percent from the 2005-2007 baseline, all of the following: the rate of sporadic Salmonella enteritidis illnesses in the population, the number of SE outbreaks and the number of SE cases associated with outbreaks.