Legislation
On March 11, President Joe Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R 1319), the latest COVID-19 response package.
While the majority of the American Rescue Plan was directed at helping the American public deal with the financial hardships worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, this bill secured critical funding for various new healthcare and public health programs, the CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative and cybersecurity surveillance. While there is still much work to be done, this ambitious legislation is a step in the right direction.
The bill passed Congress March 10 on a party-line vote through the budget reconciliation process, which requires all items to be budgetary in nature and only requires a simple majority to pass in the Senate. Many of the sections in the bill include “no year appropriations,” which means the funds are available for obligations for an indefinite period of time without fiscal year limitation. This is critical for efforts that require funding for multiple years as they will not have to rely on annual funding from Congress.
What is the American Rescue Plan?
Overall, the American Rescue Plan contains $1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, programing and tax policies aimed at addressing the pandemic, and it provides economic relief to the American people. Passing this bill fulfilled one of President Biden’s major campaign promises, and it was signed into law on his fiftieth day in office.
What are the key sections that align with HIMSS policy priorities?
- Provides $500 million to support public health data surveillance and infrastructure modernization initiatives, as well as efforts to modernize the country’s disease warning system to track COVID-19 and emerging biological threats
- A significant portion of the funds will go to supporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Data Modernization Initiative (DMI). Funding for the DMI has been a top organizational priority for HIMSS and the Data: Elemental to Health Campaign.
- Provides $500 million through the US Department of Agriculture to award grants to eligible entities. These grants could be used to cover COVID-19-related expenses and increase capacity and telehealth capabilities
- Provides $650 million for cybersecurity risk mitigation at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Key Sections
Sec. 1002. Emergency rural development grants for rural healthcare
What it is: Establishment of an emergency pilot program for rural development
What happened: An eligible applicant to whom a grant is awarded under this section may use the grant funds for costs, including those incurred prior to the issuance of the grant, as determined by the Secretary, of facilities which: primarily serve rural areas, are in a rural area, the median household income of the population to be served by which is less than the greater of the poverty line or the applicable percentage. Of those costs, funds can be used for assistance in increasing telehealth capabilities, including underlying healthcare information systems.
Funding amount: $500 million
Timeline for funding: The Secretary of Agriculture may use these funds to establish this emergency pilot program no later than 150 days after the enactment of this Act. The funds will remain available until Sept. 30, 2023.
Sec. 2301. Funding for COVID-19 vaccine activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
What it is: Funding to allow HHS to partner with other agencies to carry out activities related to COVID-19 vaccines
What happened: Funding to carry out activities to plan, prepare for, promote, distribute, administer, monitor and track COVID-19 vaccines. This allow allows for supplemental funding for state vaccination grants.
Funding amount: $7.5 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2302. Funding for vaccine confidence activities
What it is: Funding to instill confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine to the public
What happened: Funding to expand upon education efforts to expand confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine across the United States and its territories.
Funding amount: $1 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2303. Funding for supply chain for COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and medical supplies
What it is: Supply chain funding for COVID 19 and SARS-CoV-2 response
What happened: Funding for research, development, manufacturing, production and the purchase of vaccines, therapeutics and ancillary medical products and supplies to prevent, prepare or respond to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
Funding amount: $6.05 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2304. Funding for COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutic and device activities at the Food and Drug Administration
What it is: Funding for COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutic and device activities
What happened: Funding for the evaluation of the continued performance, safety and effectiveness, including with respect to emerging COVID-19 variants, of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics
Funding can also be used for facilitation of advanced continuous manufacturing and inspection activities related to production of vaccines and related materials, and oversight of the supply chain and mitigation of shortages of vaccines, therapeutics and devices.
Funding amount: $500 million
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2401. Funding for COVID–19 testing, contact tracing, and mitigation activities
What it is: Additional funding for testing and tracing COVID-19
What happened: Additional funding to carry out activities to detect, diagnose, trace and monitor SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 infections and related strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID–19
Funding amount: $47.8 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2402. Funding for SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing and surveillance
What it is: Funding to support COVID-19 genomic sequencing and surveillance
What happened: Funding to strengthen and expand activities and workforce related to genomic sequencing, analytics and disease surveillance
Funding amount: $1.75 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2403. Funding for global health
What it is: Funding to combat COVID-19 globally
What happened: Funding to allow the CDC to combat SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 and other emerging infectious disease threats globally, including efforts related to global health security, global disease detection and response, global health protection, global immunization and global coordination on public health.
Funding amount: $750 million
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2404. Funding for data modernization and forecasting center
What it is: Additional funding for data modernization
What happened: Funding to support public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization initiatives at the CDC, and establish, expand and maintain efforts to modernize the United States disease warning system to forecast and track hotspots for COVID-19, its variants and emerging biological threats. It is expected $200 million will be used to establish the National Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which will help modernize the U.S. disease warning system in order to scale action to prevent, detect, respond to and recover from COVID-19 and future outbreaks.
This additional funding further builds on the $600 million HIMSS and the Data Partners have already secured for DMI through FY2020 and FY2021 Appropriations bills, as well as supplement appropriations aimed at combating COVID-19.
Funding amount: $500 million
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 2707 Funding for community-based support for local behavioral health needs
What it is: Funding for additional local behavioral health needs
What happened: Funding for state, local, tribal and territorial governments, tribal organizations, nonprofit community-based entities and primary care and behavioral health organizations to address increased community behavioral health needs worsened by the COVID-19 public health emergency. Funding provided by grants can be used for mental health professionals utilizing telehealth services to deliver care.
Funding amount: $50 million
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 4009. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
What it is: Additional funding to mitigate against cybersecurity risks
What happened: Additional funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for cybersecurity risk mitigation
Funding amount: $650 million
Timeline for funding: Funds are to remain available until Sept. 30, 2023
Sec. 4010. Appropriation for the United States Digital Service
What happened: Additional funding for the United States Digital Service
Funding amount: $200 million
Timeline for funding: Funds are to remain available until Sept. 30, 2024
Sec. 4011. Appropriation for the Technology Modernization Fund
What happened: Additional funding to give agencies additional ways to deliver services to the American public more quickly, better secure sensitive systems and data and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently
Funding amount: $1 billion
Timeline for funding: Funds are to remain available until Sept. 30, 2025
Sec. 7501. National Institute of Standards and Technology
What it is: Additional funding for NIST
What happened: Additional funding to grant awards for research, development and testbeds to prevent, prepare for and respond to coronavirus
Funding amount: $150 million
Timeline for funding: Funds are to remain available until Sept. 30, 2022
Sec. 8005. Funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
What it is: Additional funding for VA OIG
What happened: Funding for audits, investigations and other oversight of projects and activities carried out with funds made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs
Funding amount: $10 million
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Sec. 11001. Indian Health Service
What it is: Additional funding for Indian Health Service
What happened: To highlight, $140,000,000 was appropriated for information technology, telehealth infrastructure and the Indian Health Service electronic health records system. The majority of the funding is intended to carry out the Act of August, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and titles II and III of the Public Health Service Act.
Funding amount: $6.094 billion
Timeline for funding: To remain available until expended
Questions may be directed to policy@himss.org.
HIMSS Public Policy and Advocacy
The HIMSS policy team works closely with the U.S. Congress, federal decision makers, state legislatures and governments, and other organizations to recommend policy, and legislative and regulatory solutions to improve health through information and technology.
Tags: Legislation, Public Policy
Published on
March 16, 2021
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