§294a Area Health Education Centers

Summary

The federal government will give two kinds of grants to support area health education center (AHEC) programs. One type helps start or keep up program infrastructure so schools can plan, run, and evaluate AHEC work. The other type helps maintain and improve existing AHEC programs when community needs change. Medical and osteopathic schools, their parent institutions, or consortia of such schools can get the start-up grants. If a State has no AHEC program, a nursing school can get a start-up grant. Maintenance grants go to entities already running an AHEC program whose centers no longer qualify for start-up funding. Applicants must send the information the Secretary requires. Grant money must be used to recruit students from underrepresented, disadvantaged, or rural backgrounds; give community-based training and field placements in clinics and public health sites; run interdisciplinary training and continuing education; measure results; and start youth public health programs. Grants may also fund new curricula, community-based research, or other strategies to meet local workforce needs. Grantees that run medical or nursing schools must put at least 10% of required clinical training in community sites away from the main teaching hospital, and nursing grantees must have a written agreement with a medical school for student placements. Each AHEC center must be an independent public or private organization (not a medical school or branch), serve a distinct underserved area or population, work with communities and workforce systems, and have a diverse community governing or advisory board. Grantees must provide non‑Federal matching funds equal to at least 50% of program costs, with at least 25% of the match in cash; new start-up grantees may request a waiver of up to 75% of the match for their first 3 years. At least 75% of grant money must be passed to the participating centers (the Secretary may waive that for the first 2 years of a new program). Awards must be at least $250,000 per center per year (the Secretary can lower this if funds are short). Infrastructure awards may fund a program up to 12 years and each center up to 6 years; maintenance awards are not limited that way. Congress authorized $41,250,000 per year for FY 2021–2025 for these grants, with no more than 35% for start-up awards, at least 60% for maintenance awards, up to 1% for evaluation, and up to 4% for technical assistance. Grantees may carry over funds between fiscal years but not more than 3 years. Congress expresses that every State should have an AHEC program.