§293 Centers of Excellence

Summary

The Secretary gives grants and contracts to certain health professions schools and other public or nonprofit groups to help run excellent programs for under‑represented minority students who want careers in health. The money must be used to build a strong pipeline of applicants with schools and community groups; help minority students do better in school; recruit and keep minority faculty (including paying stipends or fellowships); improve clinical training, curriculum, and cultural competency about minority health; support research on health issues that affect minority groups; train students at community health sites that serve many minority patients and are away from the main campus; and pay student stipends when appropriate. Grants can last up to 5 years and are paid only if Congress provides the money and the Secretary approves each year. To get a grant, a school must meet rules about having and graduating many under‑represented minority students, offering scholarships and other help, and working to increase minority faculty or administrators. There are special types of centers (general Centers of Excellence, Hispanic Centers of Excellence, and Native American Centers of Excellence) when schools meet extra conditions, and schools may join in a consortium so a group can meet the Native American conditions together. The law also sets how available money must be split each year. Exact rules depend on the total funds: if the year’s funds are $24,000,000 or less, $12,000,000 must go to a special historic group of schools (including those with a certain 1987 contract), then 60% of the remainder goes to Hispanic or Native American centers and 40% to other centers; if funds are more than $24,000,000 but less than $30,000,000, 80% of the excess goes to Hispanic/Native American centers and 20% to other centers; if between $30,000,000 and $40,000,000, at least $12,000,000 must go to that special historic group, at least $12,000,000 to Hispanic/Native American centers, and at least $6,000,000 to other centers (with leftovers for eligible schools); if $40,000,000 or more, at least $16,000,000 goes to that historic group, at least $16,000,000 to Hispanic/Native American centers, and at least $8,000,000 to other centers (with leftovers for eligible schools). Centers must keep their non‑Federal spending at least at the previous year’s level, and must use any other federal funds they have for these activities before spending the new grant money unless the Secretary allows otherwise. A “health professions school” means a school of medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, or a graduate program in behavioral or mental health. “Native Americans” means American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians. The law authorizes $23,711,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025.