HIV POLICY UPDATE

February 8, 2023

Academy, HIV Medicine Association, Others Call on HHS to Fund Workforce Pilot

The Academy joined the HIV Medicine Association, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the American Public Health Association and others to urge the Biden administration to include $50 million for the BIO Preparedness Workforce Pilot Program and $100 million for the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program in the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2024.

Readers will recall that the BIO Preparedness Workforce Pilot Program was authorized in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 as part of the PREVENT Pandemics Act. Both programs are essential to ensuring the U.S. has the public health and infectious diseases health care workforce necessary to mount equitable responses in all communities to outbreaks and epidemics, such as COVID-19, mpox, influenza, HIV, viral hepatitis, the opioid crisis and antimicrobial resistance.

Funding of $50 million for the Pilot would benefit as many as 1,000 infectious diseases professionals and $100 million in funding would allow as many as 2,000 public health professionals to receive up to $50,000 in student loan repayment benefits. More importantly, this funding will serve as a significant incentive to enter the fields of public health and ID within the upcoming educational, training and recruitment processes. The full letter can be viewed here. The President is expected to release his administration’s budget proposal on March 9.

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