The Remington Report

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced new investments worth $250 million to increase the number of healthcare providers – including physicians, physician assistants, and nurses – and strengthen the primary care workforce. The investments are the first allocation from the new $500 million Prevention and Public Health fund for FY10, which was created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The investments will support the training and development of more than 16,000 new primary care providers, including:
• $168 million for training more than 500 new primary care physicians by 2015
• $32 million for training more than 600 new physician assistants
• $30 million for encouraging more than 600 nursing students to attend school full time
• $15 million for establishing 10 new nurse-managed clinics that assist in training nurse practitioners
• $5 million for encouraging states to plan and implement innovative strategies to expand their primary care workforce by 10 to 25 percent over 10 years to meet increased demand