Health Workforce Innovation Act

Key Points

• This bill creates a new Health Care Workforce Innovation Program to train allied health professionals like dental assistants, pharmacy techs, EMTs, and community health workers. It focuses on expanding the supply of these workers in underserved communities and rural areas that face health care shortages.
• Community health centers, rural health clinics, and accredited nonprofit vocational programs can apply for grants of up to $2.5 million. The money can fund apprenticeships, training equipment, partnerships with high schools and colleges, and small renovations to training spaces, but not major construction.
• The program gives priority to applicants that will train people from underserved and disadvantaged backgrounds, improve access to medical, behavioral health, and oral health care, or show their model can be replicated cost-effectively in other underserved communities.
• Funding is authorized for fiscal years 2027 through 2029, and each grant must last at least three years. The bill does not set a specific dollar amount for the overall program, instead authorizing "such sums as may be necessary."