The Senate Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies marked up its draft appropriations bill and released a final version July 29th. The bill provides $169.9 billion in discretionary funds for a variety of programs, some of which would be very helpful for rural healthcare consumers & providers. In particular to note is the $5.1 million for the Rural Physician Pipeline program, which was introduced by Colorado Senator Udall. This program was included in the federal health reform bill, but did not receive appropriated funding through the bill. There are a host of other rural friendly & workforce provisions in the bill including funding for primary care training, nurse faculty loan forgiveness, and public health workforce training. You can read more about what was appropriated by clicking HERE.

The big pickle with this bill is that it is not likely to be voted on by Congress until after the elections in November. According to our partners at the National Rural Health Association, Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) was quoted as saying, “this bill probably won’t see the light of day until December, maybe January.” Not promising news……..