HHS awards nearly $583M to US health centers to expand COVID-19 testing

Nearly $583 million has been dispatched to 1,385 Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded health centers throughout the United States and its territories to bolster COVID-19 testing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week.

“Widespread testing is a critical step in reopening America, and health centers are vital to making testing easily accessible, especially for underserved and minority populations,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. “Further, because health centers can help notify contacts of patients who test positive, they will continue playing an important role in cooperating with state and local public health departments.”

According to HHS, nearly 88 percent of those health centers now test COVID-19 patients. Of these, more than 65 percent also offer walk-up or drive-up testing. These health centers alone are currently providing more than 100,000 COVID-19 tests weekly. The funds meant to expand their efforts will be pulled from the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, signed into law last month, and build upon the $1.42 billion already awarded to health centers for COVID-19 efforts.

The money will be used to expand the range of testing, its procurement and administration, and testing-related activities for facilities’ respective local communities. Other viable expenditures include personal protective equipment, staff training, outreach, lab services, contact tracing, and the expansion of walk-up or drive-up testing services.

“Health centers are a first line of defense, as they are testing for coronavirus and delivering high-quality primary care to our nation’s most vulnerable populations,” HRSA Administrator Tom Engels said. “In the fight against COVID-19, we must marshal all of our resources to keep Americans healthy and care for those who become ill.”