Stimulus Billions for American Health Care Distributed by HHS

It has been nearly a month since Congress passed President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February. The multi-tiered stimulus package that was touted as the beginning of America’s path to revitalization in the face of an ever-worsening recession contained billions of dollars for the health care industry. And as promised by the Obama administration, the distribution of the money is transparent, specifically by way of announcements by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding funds allocations thus far.

When the stimulus package finally worked its way through Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received final word of the monies that would be dedicated to the health care system, HHS went about creating the Office of Recovery Act Coordination to efficiently and correctly distribute the $137 billion. Dennis Williams, an HHS veteran of more than 20 years, was appointed to lead the office and serve as its Deputy Assistant Secretary for Recovery Act Coordination.

Within weeks, the newly-formed office allocated more than $3 billion of it to states for programs like Medicaid and institutions in need like community health centers. As HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus noted, “HHS is committed to moving quickly and carefully to distribute Recovery Act funds in an open and transparent manner. We have already worked to put more than $3 billion in Recovery Act funds into states and the new Office of Recovery Act Coordination will enhance and streamline our efforts to get critical resources and potential new job opportunities to the American people during tough times.”

Over and above the aforementioned $3 billion, an additional $268 million has been made available to states for hospitals that administer to a larger-than-average number of low-income or uninsured patients. Those funds, also put into effect by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, are now accessible to hospitals that need it most.

Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) already receive an annual dispersement from HHS to help with the costs of treating patients with no insurance or limited coverage. However, many hospitals are still left to foot the bill for many of its patients rather than turn them away. The Obama administration made sure to consider those necessary services in its stimulus package in order to keep the hospitals from passing those costs on to their communities and taxpayers. DSH facilities must demonstrate that they are in need of more funds and make a request for the new funds, which will be filtered through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Acting HHS Secretary Charles E. Johnson, who continues to serve until the nominated Kathleen Sebelius can be confirmed, spoke of the hospital funding: “Thousands of hospitals around the country are the first place many families take their sick children for care or the only place where some of the more than 45 million uninsured Americans can receive some form of health care. The funding from the Recovery Act will help ensure hospitals can keep their doors open to the people who need care most.”

Amongst the distributions and establishment of an office to handle them, the HHS has undergone another change in order to properly adjust to the extra attention being paid by the Obama administration to America’s health care system. That change involved the hiring of David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology by President Obama, whose promise to improve the system’s technology was part of his presidential campaign as well as his agenda since taking office.

Blumenthal’s position will entail modernizing the health care system through technological advances, such as transferring medical records to an electronic system and subsequently reducing administrative costs of hospitals and medical facilities. He will be in charge of properly allocating the $19.5 billion from the stimulus package dedicated to this project, which is estimated to be able to reduce health care costs by $12 billion over the next ten years. Ultimately, the project will pay for itself in dollars and efficiency within the system.

Bringing with him a great deal of experience in the health care system, Blumenthal was not only a physician in Boston but the director of the Institute for Health Policy at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System. He also served in many positions at Harvard Medical School, as well as on the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research under Senator Edward Kennedy. But his dedication to Obama’s efforts stands out as well, as he was the senior health advisor to Obama’s campaign and sees eye to eye with Obama on many improvements to the health care system that look to be implemented in the coming years.

“As a primary care physician who has used an electronic record to care for patients every day for 10 years,” Blumenthal said upon his appointment, “I understand the enormous potential of this technology. President Obama has laid out a vision of health reform that is both inspiring and long overdue. We cannot make that vision a reality without the help of our most advanced computer technology.”