|
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) block grant? The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (Public Law 97-35) authorized a series of health and social services block grants to states to carry out programs that were previously authorized separately. The final version was signed into law on August 13, 1981, amending the PHS Act to create the PHHS Block Grant. The PHHS Block Grant is a mandatory grant given to 61 grantees (50 states, the District of Columbia, 2 American Indian Tribes, and the eight U.S. Territories) by Congress annually. The original legislation placed in the PHHS Block Grant the following categorical programs:
The PHHS Block Grant consolidated funds from these programs into a proportional formula based grant. With the exception of allotments for services for rape victims which is a population based formula, each grantees proportion of PHHS block grant funds is equal to the percentage of funds received by the grantee during Fiscal Year (FY) 1981 under the former categorical program. On October 27, 1992, (Public Law 102-531), established a number of significant changes to Section 1905 of the PHHS block grant. The new legislation mandated that the PHHSBG be solely devoted to Healthy People 2000/2010, the nation's health objectives. The grant required the states to submit a state health plan with selected health outcome objectives, descriptions of the health problems, identified target and disparate populations, and activities to be addressed. During FY 1996, Public Law 102-531, was amended by adding a new Section 1910A use of allotments for rape prevention and education. This amendment authorized additional monies for rape prevention and education programs with twenty-five percent of the monies targeted to middle, junior, and high school students for education programs. On October 28, 2000, Public Law 102-531 was amended by repealing Section 1910A from the PHHS block grant. This amendment became Public Law 106-386 and authorized monies for rape prevention and education programs to be administered through the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. How is the PHHS block grant used by the states and territories? The Block Grant is the primary source of flexible funding that provides states the latitude to fund any of 265 national health objectives available in the nation's Healthy People 2010 health improvement plan. The PHHS block grant is used to support clinical services, preventive screening, laboratory support, outbreak control, workforce training, public education, data surveillance, and program evaluation targeting such health problems as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, emergency medical services, injury and violence prevention, infectious disease, environmental health, community fluoridation, and sex offenses. Because of the variance in the allowable uses of the funds, no two states allocate their block grant resources in the same way, and no two states provide similar amounts of funding to the same program or activities. A strong emphasis is being placed on adolescents, communities with little or poor health care services, and disadvantaged populations. The states depend on the block grant to support public health funding where no other adequate resources are available. States invest their PHHS block grant dollars in a variety of public health areas. PHHS block grant dollars are used to support existing programs, implement new programs, and respond to unexpected emergencies. The PHHS block grant contributes to the following activities:
Page last reviewed: October 31, 2008 |
|
||||||||||||
|