When was hhs established

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How do I update a page? Election results. Privacy policy About Ballotpedia Disclaimers Login. Executive Departments of the United States. The mission of the Department of Health and Human Services is to help provide the building blocks that Americans need to live healthy, successful lives.

Read more about the administrative state on Ballotpedia. In , the Surgeon General released the first report on smoking and health, which launched a new debate on the dangers of a previously unquestioned habit enjoyed by millions of Americans. Even more dramatic was the decision in to create the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which for the first time made comprehensive health care available to millions of Americans. The Head Start program was also created. In , the Public Health Service launched the International Smallpox Eradication program that would lead to the complete elimination of the disease by The late seventies saw the Carter administration remove education from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare creating the Department of Education and form the Department of Health and Human Services.

Medicare is a federal social insurance program established in to provide healthcare coverage for people over The program was expanded in to include people under 65 with permanent disabilities. Most Americans are entitled to basic coverage under Medicare if they or their spouse have contributed payroll taxes for more than 10 years.

Medicare currently covers more than 40 million people, but with significant coverage gaps—in vision, dental and long-term care.

The gradual privatization of the system—including recently reformed prescription drug coverage—is also highly contested among advocates, lawmakers and lobbyists. It is funded as a joint venture by states and the federal government, with each state determining the exact scope of its program, payment rates and specific eligibility standards.

The federal government, meanwhile, establishes general guidelines for the programs and monitors their enforcement through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS. Participation is voluntary; however, every state has been signed up since the last holdout, Arizona, created its Medicaid variant in The major sticking point for Medicaid can be summed up in one word: money.

Many people view with alarm the gradually escalating costs associated with the program, and some states have had to devote as much as one-fifth of their budgets to sustaining it. Fraud is also a major issue. Medicaid reform of some kind or another is therefore a perennial item on the political agenda.

ACF oversees and finances social and economic programs for vulnerable children and families designed to help them develop more independent, self-reliant lives.

Targeted groups include Native Americans, persons with developmental disabilities, refugees and legalized aliens. Programs are carried out by state, county, city and tribal governments, as well as public and private local agencies. The agency identifies areas of the country that have a shortage of primary and dental care and medical professionals. Indian Health Service IHS provides preventive, curative and community health care to approximately 1.

IHS currently provides health services to approximately 1. SAMHSA seeks to improve the quality and availability of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services in order to reduce illness, death, disability, and cost to society resulting from substance abuse and mental illnesses.

At times the agency has taken public stances on controversial issues, such as treatment of heroin addiction and homosexuality and transgender identity.

Administration for Community Living ACL is the official federal agency responsible for home and community-based services and programs related to aging. It also focuses on helping empower Americans before and during their later years to make informed decisions about health care options; ensuring the rights of the elderly to prevent their abuse, neglect and exploitation; and facilitating society to prepare for an aging population.

ACL, funded by the Older Americans Act, is part of a federal, state, tribal and local partnership called the National Network on Aging, which currently helps about seven million older people and their caregivers, via 29, service providers and thousands of volunteers.

NIH also conducts its own research at its 27 institutes and centers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC leads public health efforts to prevent and control infectious and chronic disease, injuries, workplace hazards, disabilities and environmental health threats. It is also responsible for producing and distributing health information internationally.

While the CDC is globally recognized for its scientific research and epidemiologic investigations, newly-emerging issues such as terrorism, environmental threats and a rapidly aging population continue to challenge its capabilities.

The agency works to elevate health care quality, reduce medical-related costs and expand healthcare access for more Americans. Early in its history, the agency became heavily involved in a controversial healthcare reform plan that almost led to AHRQ being eliminated.

Since then, the agency has maintained a low profile, void of controversy. National Toxicology Program NTP is an interagency program that provides data addressing a wide variety of issues important to public health.

NTP works to safeguard public health by identifying the effects of chemicals used in everyday items and at what level of exposure they have the potential of becoming hazardous to humans. NTP has attracted controversy because of its policy of allowing some industries to self regulate their own products and because of its extensive use of animals for testing.

ATSDR identifies communities where people might be exposed to hazardous substances in the environment. But as far as investigations go, ATSDR cannot enforce any regulations by closing down a plant or other business. It can only make recommendations to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The ATSDR has worked on a variety of different cases and projects, including aiding New York City in establishing a registry to assess short and long term health effects from the World Trade Center collapse, sampling the dust and air after the collapse of the World Trade Center, testing the water and soil at Camp Pendleton for lead, copper and other chemicals, as well as monitoring the effects of asbestos and identifying sites that have high concentrations of it.

FDA regulates a wide range of medical and food products. The FDA is comprised of chemists, pharmacologists, physicians, microbiologists, veterinarians, pharmacists, lawyers and other professionals. Despite all of the expertise employed by the agency, the FDA has struggled to carry out its mission to protect Americans from harmful drugs and foods.

The top 10 recipients of HHS dollars include major pharmaceutical companies and defense contractors:. Some HHS funding is distributed in the form of research grants.

The NIH is a prime distributor of such moneys to higher education , hospitals , medical schools , research institutions and non-profits. After FEMA decided to distribute thousands of mobile home trailers to those left homeless by the disaster, health officials at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ATSDR failed to alert officials about the presence of formaldehyde in the trailers.

Price, M. Archive Collection. Washington, D. A-Z Index. HHS Historical Highlights. Initiative to combat bioterrorism was launched. Nutrition Labeling and Education Act was passed, authorizing the food label.

McKinney Act was passed to provide health care to the homeless. Worldwide eradication of smallpox, led by the U. Head Start program was created. January 24, - January 20, Alex M. Thompson January 22, - January 20, Donna E. Shalala March 1, - January 20, Louis W. Sullivan, M. D December 13, - January 20, Otis R. HHS represents almost a quarter of all federal outlays and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined.

Medicare and Medicaid together provide health care insurance for one in four Americans. HHS works closely with state and local governments, and many HHS-funded services are provided at the local level by state or county agencies, or through private sector grantees. The Department supports more than programs, covering a wide spectrum of activities administered by 11 operating divisions.

In addition to delivering services, HHS programs support the collection of health data and provide for the equitable treatment in health care and human service settings. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, HHS has been moving forward to implement the law and help improve the health of millions of Americans. The law puts in place comprehensive reforms that protect Americans from the worst insurance company abuses, makes health insurance more affordable, provides better access to care and coverage, and strengthens Medicare.

For example, HHS is working with states to establish new transparent and competitive insurance marketplaces called Affordable Insurance Exchanges where, beginning in , individuals and small businesses can compare their coverage options and buy affordable health coverage.

Additionally, many important benefits and protections have already gone into effect, helping millions get the coverage they need and putting Americans back in charge of their health care.

Because of the law:. To ensure public access and transparency, HHS launched www. The site has been visited more than 10 million times since it launched.

The site includes extensive, easy to understand information about the health care law, including new rights and protections, coverage options, and how the Affordable Care Act will help consumers. The website is the first of its kind to bring information and links to health insurance plans and other coverage options into one place, making it easy for consumers to learn about their insurance choices. And on November 18, , HHS added a unique tool to allow small businesses to research and compare locally available insurance plans in an unbiased manner.

As a result, small businesses now have easy access to plan data, such as out-of-pocket limits, average cost per enrollee, available deductibles and co-pay options including services that are not covered and benefits available for purchase at additional costs , Health Savings Account eligibility, and more. A Spanish language version of the website www. In order to ensure a robust system of monitoring and evaluation as well as government transparency and accountability, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation has designed a Health System Tracking Project.

The Health System Tracking Project is a dynamic, web-based tool that displays data on key health indicators, compiled from across federal sources, along with descriptions of the measures and links to data sources. Good metrics will allow policymakers, providers and the public to monitor changes in health care quality, cost and access and enable them to understand the effects of these changes across the health care system.

In keeping with its commitment to transparency and accountability, HHS launched a new year agenda for Healthy People in December Healthy People represents the fourth generation of decade-long disease prevention and health promotion goals for the nation. Tracking data, interventions, and other resources are easily accessible at the redesigned healthypeople.

HHS developed Healthy People through a collaborative process that drew on expertise and input across multiple Federal agencies, state and local governments, academia, business, community and professional organizations, and members of the public. Agencies establish a variety of organizational goals to drive progress toward key outcomes for the American people. Long-term strategic goals articulate clear statements of what the agency wants to achieve to advance its mission and address relevant national problems, needs, challenges and opportunities.

Strategic objectives define the outcome or management impact the agency is trying to achieve, and also include the agency's role. Each strategic objective is tracked through a suite of performance goals, indicators and other evidence.

Click here for more information on stakeholder engagement during goal development. Statement: Make coverage more secure for those who have insurance, and extend affordable coverage to the uninsured. Description: HHS is securing and extending health insurance by implementing provisions created by the Affordable Care Act such as working with states to set up health insurance exchanges, expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income Americans, and prohibiting insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick.

Learn More. Statement: Improve healthcare quality and patient safety. Description: HHS is improving healthcare quality and patient safety by developing physician- and hospital-quality reporting systems that link payments to the quality and efficiency of care and initiating a bundled-payment system that will align payments for services delivered across an episode of care, such as a heart bypass or hip replacement, rather than paying for services separately.

HHS is also reducing healthcare-associated infections, adverse drug events, and other complications of healthcare delivery through quality and safety promotion efforts. Description: At any given time, about one in every 25 hospitalized patients has a healthcare-associated infection while over 1 million HAIs occur across the U.

These infections can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, with tens of thousands of lives lost each year. Of these hospital-acquired events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections CAUTI are among the most common. Research has shown that a significant portion of these infections can be prevented, avoiding patient morbidity and mortality from this HAI while reducing costs accrued to the healthcare system. Of note, this SIR baseline was changed from 1.

This reflects the fact that the CDC released preliminary final numbers for in September , the time at which this goal was written. However, hospitals still had through the end of the year to report final data to NHSN.

Accounting for the last three months of data submitted by some hospitals caused a slight adjustment in the final and thus baseline SIR from 1. We make this adjustment in the HAI. The main US Department of Health and Human Services HHS operating divisions that constitute this workgroup will focus on applying their HAI programmatic efforts in a way that aligns strategy and metrics, provides consistent messaging to its audience, uses data to target those facilities in most need of improvement, and creates synergy to achieve CAUTI reduction outcomes.

These initiatives include:. Attention to several factors are necessary to assess progress toward goals in this new period. As in the previous HAI goal and consistent with a measurement strategy used by a majority of hospitals that participate in national HAI reporting initiatives, this goal will use the standardized infection ratio SIR as the measure, NHSN, the CDC-run infection surveillance system as the primary data source and report data points on a biannual basis.

A six month lag in data will remain in order to ensure the most complete and accurate data being reported out and minimize statistically insignificant variations in the data. We will also be able to illustrate the CAUTI SIR baseline and trending data by applying the new vs the old definition in order to demonstrate the degree of difference or lack thereof resulting from this definitional change.

Lastly, analysis of the CAUTI data continues to reveal marked difference in reductions between intensive care and non-intensive care units. Intensive care units have significantly higher SIRs, higher number of catheter-days, and show less reductions in these indicators of progress than in the non ICU setting.

Given the fact that sicker patients are admitted in ICUs, retaining a urinary catheter for longer may be a rooted in practice necessity or provider belief that it is a necessity and so concentrating on behavioral and systems process change may need to be further emphasized as we work in this setting to reduce CAUTI.

Improvements in CAUTI however, have been demonstrated in large scale improvement programs when actively engaged in embedding evidence-based infection control protocol and a culture of safety unit and facility-wide.

Statement: Emphasize primary and preventive care linked with community prevention services. Description: The Affordable Care Act is expanding insurance coverage for Americans, supporting improvements in primary care, and makings new investments in community-based prevention. As part of this effort, HHS is focusing on creating key linkages between health care and effective community prevention services that support healthy living and disease management. Description: Smoking and second hand smoke is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than an estimated , people in the U.

For every smoker who dies from a smoking-attributable disease, another 30 live with a serious smoking-related disease. Smoking costs the U. An estimated 58 million nonsmoking Americans are exposed to secondhand smoke, which causes more than 41, deaths in non-smoking adults each year.

While smoking among U. Fortunately, people who stop smoking greatly reduce their risk for disease and premature death. Smoking cessation lowers the risk for lung and other types of cancer; it reduces the risk for coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. In , HHS issued Ending the Epidemic — A Tobacco Control Strategic Action Plan, outlining a set of comprehensive actions framed around four key Healthy People tobacco control objectives: 1 reduce tobacco use 2 reduce the initiation of tobacco use 3 increase successful cessation attempts by smokers 4 reduce the proportion of nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke.

The National Prevention Strategy, released in , includes tobacco control as one of seven priorities across the U. There is also a growing concern regarding new tobacco products that are being marketed to smokers as alternatives for use in smoke-free environments. Dual use of cigarettes and other tobacco products can maintain tobacco addiction and use among smokers who might otherwise quit.

The marketing of purported reduced-risk products may increase overall tobacco use. States continue to reduce funding for comprehensive tobacco control. Research has shown that progress to prevent initiation and promote cessation in comprehensive programs is reversed when funding is no longer sustained. The U. All meetings of these committees are open to the public and offer opportunities for stakeholder feedback.

Statement: Reduce the growth of healthcare costs while promoting high-value, effective care. Description: HHS is identifying, testing, evaluating and expanding innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP, without compromising quality of care or patient health outcomes. HHS is establishing value-based payment policies, programs, and initiatives that reward providers for delivering high-quality and efficient care.

In addition, HHS is exploring strategies to enable providers and payers to process financial and administrative transactions faster and at lower cost.

Statement: Ensure access to quality, culturally competent care, including long-term services and supports, for vulnerable populations. Description: With the growing diversity of the U. The Affordable Care Act highlights minority health by formally establishing minority health offices in the Department's agencies, and contains provisions to improve data collection and analysis. HHS is working to address disparities by promoting access to quality primary care and preventive services, developing a diverse, culturally-competent workforce, and preventing discriminatory practices.

Statement: Improve health care and population health through meaningful use of health information technology.