Thank you to the California Endowment...

[LESH]

Dear Healthcare Workforce Development Partners,

 

Today, Governor Brown released the May Revision to his Fiscal Year (FY) 2013-14 proposed state budget. The May Revise includes proposals in support of healthcare workforce development in California. The May Revise includes two key proposals that impact the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and the Health Professions Education Foundation (HPEF); they are as follows:

 

1) Increase of $21 million in expenditure authority for FY 2013/14 for OSHPD to deliver healthcare workforce development incentive programs to be funded by a grant from the California Endowment. The California Endowment has committed a total of $52 million to OSHPD for the next four years. $14 million of the budget year amount is for health profession scholarships and loan repayments to be administered by OSHPD’s Health Professions Education Foundation, while the remainder is for health professional training programs to be awarded via OSHPD’s Song-Brown Program.

 

2) Appropriate $7,839,000 in unexpended Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Workforce, Education, and Training (WET) funds through FY 2017-18. Of this amount, the expenditure of $7,509,000 will be based on the needs and strategies identified in the MHSA WET five-year plan that OSHPD is currently developing with a target completion of April 1, 2014. The remaining, $330,000 is proposed to be expended for purposes of the Mental Health Loan Assumption Program. This appropriation ensures that money that was earmarked by the MHSA for WET programs continues to be available and expended for purposes of promoting the distribution, diversity, competency, collaboration and capacity of California’s public mental health workforce.

 

Both of these proposals are in support of California’s efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act, address health workforce shortages in California’s medically underserved communities, and address shortages in California’s public mental health workforce.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Robert P. David

Director

Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development