White House to Unveil $1B Plan to Expand Health Care Workforce

Published November 14, 2011 | NewsCore
Retrieved Via Foxnews.com

The White House will announce Monday the release of up to $1 billion to hire and train health care workers as part of its “We Can’t Wait” program.

The funding will be given to doctors, government organizations and groups involved with Medicare and Medicaid, The Washington Post reported, for experimenting with ways to deliver effective health care and expand the related workforce while reducing the cost of doing so.

“This will open the inbox for many innovators and organizations that have an idea to bring to the table,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services official Don Berwick told The Post.

“We’re seeking innovators, organizations and leaders that have an idea to bring into further testing.”

More than 300,000 health care jobs were added in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which predicts growth of 3.2 million health jobs by 2018 despite a shortage of doctors being forecast.

“We have a wealth of good ideas in health care, but the big challenge is spread,” Berwick reportedly said. “This will be seed money to get innovation to go further. This is venture capital to grow good ideas to scale.”

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation boss Richard Gilfillan told The Post: “In many ways, the health care system in the future will be different from the health care system today. We’re saying, let’s find the best people to do these jobs and broaden the workforce.”