Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act
Key claim: This introduced Senate bill would require HHS to fund palliative-care and hospice education programs, fellowships, and academic career awards, and would direct NIH to expand palliative-care research.
Abstract
(S2243 · 118th Congress) Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take a series of actions relating to palliative-care training. Specifically, HHS must provide support for Palliative Care and Hospice Education Programs. The programs must support the training of health professionals in palliative and hospice care, including through traineeships or fellowships. In addition, HHS may provide support to medical schools, teaching hospitals, and graduate medical-education programs for training physicians who plan to teach or practice palliative medicine. HHS must also (1) provide Palliative Care and Hospice Academic Career Awards to health professional schools to promote the career development of academic hospice and palliative care specialists, (2) support individuals in specified fields who are pursuing an advanced degree in palliative care or related fields, and (3) award grants to nursing programs to train individuals in providing palliative care. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality may disseminate information to inform patients, families, and health professionals about the benefits of palliative care. The National Institutes of Health must expand national research programs in palliative care. Latest action (2023-07-11): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Why this matters
The bill illustrates how Congress uses categorical authorizations to steer both HHS workforce training dollars and NIH extramural research toward a specific clinical domain, rather than leaving priorities to agency discretion. For researchers and academic medical centers, enactment would create new fellowship and career-award mechanisms in palliative care; until then it is a signal of legislative intent rather than available funding.