Collins, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Grow and Support the Infectious Disease and Pandemic Preparedness Workforce
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the Bolstering Infectious Outbreak (BIO) Preparedness Workforce Act to address retention and recruitment issues facing vital clinicians and public health professionals and better prepare the American health care system for future public health emergencies. The bipartisan legislation would establish a new student loan repayment program for infectious disease (ID) clinicians and other public health preparedness and response professionals who work in health care settings.
“We need to encourage students to pursue careers in health care and eliminate barriers to getting this vital training -- such as nursing faculty shortages or financial disincentives to pursuing certain specialties,” said Senator Collins. “The ongoing public health emergency has underscored the importance of investing in a robust medical workforce. Our bipartisan bill would establish a new student loan repayment program for infectious disease professionals, attracting more students to this critical field and helping our nation prepare for future crises.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic put a major strain on our health care system, especially among our infectious diseases clinical workforce and public health professionals who specialize in bio-preparedness. This bipartisan legislation will strengthen our workforce to help get through this pandemic, and make sure we are better prepared for future public health emergencies,” said Senator Baldwin. “We need to use all the tools in the tool box to be better prepared, and that starts with making sure we support and grow our infectious disease and pandemic preparedness workforce.”
“The American Medical Association appreciates Sens. Baldwin and Collins for introducing legislation that would help address critical physician shortages and strengthen our nation’s preparedness for public health emergencies,” said Gerald A. Harmon, MD, President of the American Medical Association. “We need additional programs for physician student loan forgiveness to ensure that we have an adequate physician staff and a prepared health care professional workforce that can protect us against health emergencies we encounter in the future.”
“The American Hospital Association (AHA) thanks Senators Baldwin and Collins for leading this important bipartisan effort to support the infectious disease and outbreak preparedness workforce, including those in America’s hospitals and health systems,” said Stacey Hughes, Executive Vice President of AHA. “This legislation will also help attract new workers to these critical professions, including by incentivizing them to practice in areas with workforce shortages and in communities dealing with sustained hardship. We look forward to working with the sponsors to move this bill forward.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed gaps and weaknesses in our nation’s preparedness for public health emergencies related to infectious disease outbreaks, including insufficient workforce capacity focused on outbreak preparedness and response in health care settings. Prolonged, significant additional work (including both direct patient care and system-focused preparedness and response activities) in an environment of health risks, uncertainty, and overwhelming loss of patient lives has contributed to severe burnout among physicians, nurses, laboratory professionals and others. This has led some to consider early retirement, exacerbating existing workforce concerns and threatening the future of this critical workforce.
A June 2020 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, authored by now-Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, found that 208 million Americans live in areas with little or no access to an ID provider. In 2020, only 75 percent of infectious diseases training programs were able to fill all their slots, in part due to significantly lower salaries for ID providers than nearly all other specialties, including general internal medicine. Given that the average medical student debt is over $200,000, the ID specialty and related bio-preparedness work are a financially infeasible choice for many.
The BIO Preparedness Workforce Act would establish a new student loan repayment program for infectious disease clinicians and bio-preparedness health care professionals including physicians, clinical pharmacists, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses. For each year of service, qualified individuals may receive up to $50,000, up to a total of $150,000 in loan repayment, with $50 million authorized for the program.
In addition to Senators Collins, Baldwin, Rosen, and Murkowski, the bipartisan legislation has been co-sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Click HERE to read the bill text.
Click HERE for the full list of support organizations.
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