Sec. 5. Professional workforce training grants program initiative
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Part W of title III of the Public Health Service Act, as added by section 4, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: Not later than 6 months after the date of the submission of the report by the Patient-Centered Health Care and Quality of Life Stakeholder Strategic Summit under section 3(e) of the Patient Centered Quality Care for Life Act, the Secretary, through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall establish a health care professional workforce training grants program initiative for the purposes of promoting and enhancing symptom assessment and management, communications skills, coordinated patient-centered care, and other quality of life focused clinical core competencies (as described in paragraph (2)) across all clinical specialties that serve seriously ill patients and patients with multiple or complex chronic diseases, such as patients with cancer; heart, renal, and liver failure; lung disease; and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Under such initiative, the Secretary shall, subject to subsection (i), award competitive grants to eligible entities to provide evidence-based training and develop new training for health professionals, including physicians, nurses, social workers, and professional chaplains for the purposes described in the previous sentence. For purposes of paragraph (1), quality of life focused clinical core competencies include, at a minimum, the assessment and management of physical, psychological, and spiritual symptoms; establishment of patient-centered goals of care; support to patient and family caregivers; and management of transitions across care sites.
For purposes of subsection (a), an eligible entity is an entity described in section 399OO(b). To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, an entity shall submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including assurances that the entity will— evaluate programs carried out by the entity through the grant provided under this section; submit to the Secretary a report on the findings of such evaluations; and coordinate the dissemination of such findings with the Secretary.
An entity awarded a grant under this section shall use such grant to carry out programs described in subsection
(e)to train health care professionals described in subsection (a)(1) for the purposes described in such subsection. Programs described in this subsection, for which a grant awarded under this section may be used, include programs to— enhance health professional communication skills in caring for seriously ill patients and survivors, establishing goals of care, and tailoring treatments; improve health profession identification of patient populations that benefit from coordinated palliative care and appropriate referral of patients for consultations with specialized interdisciplinary palliative care teams; improve health professional skills in symptoms assessment and management, developing comprehensive care coordination and discharge plans to support transitions across care settings, managing patients with complex or multiple chronic conditions, and preparing survivorship care plans; promote quality of life focused clinical core competencies (as described in subsection (a)(2)) across all clinical specialties serving seriously ill patients; provide technical assistance to hospitals and other care settings to establish coordinated palliative care teams; create and expand coordinated palliative care leadership centers (as defined in subsection (h)); provide mentoring and training to health professionals; improve cultural sensitivity communication and patient care for minority and medically underserved populations, including by addressing the particular needs of children, adolescents, and families of such children and adolescents; racial and ethnic groups; and other medically underserved patient and survivor populations; and collect and analyze data related to the effectiveness of health professional education and training efforts carried out pursuant to this section. In carrying out the grant program under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to applications that include an emphasis on addressing outreach efforts for seriously ill patients who are among medically underserved populations (as defined in section 1302(7)) and families of such patients or health professionals serving medically underserved populations. Such populations would include pediatric patients, young adult and adolescent patients, racial and ethnic minority populations, and other priority populations specified by the Secretary. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of the Patient Centered Quality Care for Life Act , the Secretary shall update and expand the September 2002 report of the Health Resources and Services Administration, titled The Supply, Demand and Use of Palliative Care Physicians in the United States . Such update and expansion shall be based on an examination of workforce trends, workforce capacity, and training needs for palliative medicine physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other palliative care team members in all care settings in the United States, as well as training needs for other medical specialists and non-physician clinicians. For purposes of this section, the term palliative care leadership center means a center— that trains hospital palliative care programs; that provides intensive operational training and mentoring for palliative care programs at every stage of development and growth; and that provides training oriented to teams rather than individuals, and involves participation by teams of hospital and hospice health care professionals involved in starting or running a palliative care program, including physicians, nurses, social workers, administrators and financial managers. There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as are necessary for each of the fiscal years 2014 through 2019. .