93.824: Area Health Education Centers Infrastructure Development Awards

93.824

Inactive

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) [HHS]

July 17, 2018

Aug. 25, 2017

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care act, Public Law 111-148, amended the PHS Act, Section 751, Area Health Education Centers. The required program activities in the amended legislation embrace the following goals to: (1) educate and train students to become culturally competent primary care health professionals who will provide healthcare in underserved areas and to health disparity populations; (2) increase the number and variety of primary care health professionals who provide care to underserved populations in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and other medically underserved areas; and (3) recruit into health careers individuals from underrepresented minority populations or from disadvantaged or rural backgrounds. The AHEC Infrastructure Development (AHEC-ID) awards consist of cooperative agreements with accredited schools of medicine and nursing, to assist the schools to improve the distribution, diversity, supply, and quality of health personnel in the health services delivery system, and to attract and retain health personnel in underserved areas. The AHEC awardees link the academic resources of medical schools and participating health profession schools with local educational and clinical sites, and thereby establish a network of primary care oriented community-based training sites to provide educational services to health profession students, faculty-preceptors and health care providers in underserved areas, and ultimately to improve the delivery of health care in an underserved region or in an entire state. Grantees shall allocate not less than 75 percent of the award to AHEC centers to coordinate community-based training and interdisciplinary/interprofessional training in underserved areas and for health disparity populations. AHEC health careers recruitment activities shall be coordinated, where feasible, with Department of Labor workforce investment boards, and shall include an emphasis on careers in public health. Interdisciplinary/interprofessional training shall involve physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists, optometrists, community health workers, public health and allied health professionals, as practicable.

B - Project Grants

Eligible applicants for Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program cooperative agreements under Section 751(a)(1) include public or private nonprofit accredited schools of medicine and osteopathic medicine and incorporated consortia made up of such schools, or the parent institutions of such schools. Also, in States in which no AHEC program is in operation, an accredited school of nursing is an eligible applicant.

Beneficiaries include a full range of trainees: high school students from underrepresented minority populations or disadvantaged or rural backgrounds, health professions students, faculty and practitioners