Healthcare Systems Bureau

The Healthcare Systems Bureau is a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Overview

HRSA provides Federal oversight and funding for a variety of health care issues, such as the Nation’s organ procurement, allocation, and transplantation system, and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Key Facts

• In FY 2007, HRSA will administer $23 million to promote the donation of organs and tissues and improve national procurement, allocation and transplantation activities. The need is clear: nearly 98,000 Americans are on the national waiting list to receive an organ transplant.

• HRSA’s efforts are having a real impact. In 2006, almost 29,000 organ transplant operations were performed nationwide, up from about 28,000 the year before. For the first time ever, the number of deceased donors surpassed 8,000. The number of deceased donors in the past five years increased by 29.6 percent.

• Annually, HRSA provides pharmaceuticals that are purchased through the 340B Program and valued at more than $5 billion. This program provides substantial discounts on pharmaceutical products to more than 12,000 eligible entities.

• More than 2,000 families and individuals who have been injured as a result of certain vaccines were awarded compensation totaling over $1.7 billion through theNational Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

• HRSA funds the improvement and stabilization of poison control centers across the United States, ensuring that the more than 2.4 million poison exposures reported each year to the Nation's poison control centers are treated over the phone with guidance from Poison Control Centers’ trained health care professionals.

Organ, Tissue and Blood Stem Cell Donation and Transplantation

Organ Transplantation

HRSA manages the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network [http://www.optn.org/] and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients [http://www.ustransplant.org/] in addition to promoting national awareness of the critical need for organ and tissue donation. HRSA provides staff and logistics support to the Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, which makes recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary on issues concerning organ donation and transplantation.

C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program and National Cord Blood Inventory

HRSA facilitates blood stem cell transplants for patients with life-threatening blood disorders who lack a related donor. The blood stem cells for transplant come from adult volunteer donors and umbilical cord blood units donated to public cord blood banks. The Registry also recruits adult volunteer potential donors, helps member cord blood banks collect and list additional units, and supports research to improve the results of unrelated donor transplants. The National Cord Blood Inventory provides funds to Cord Blood Banks to collect cord blood units and to makes them available for cord blood stem cell transplants and research.

Affordable Health Care

340B Drug Pricing Program

The 340B Program provides substantial discounts on pharmaceutical products to some 12,000 eligible entities such as health centers, disproportionate share hospitals, and Indian Health Service grantees. The 340B program has cut drug costs for participants by an estimated 30-50 percent, providing an estimated $5 billion in statutorily discounted prescription drugs. Participation in the 340B Program is increasing at a rate of more than 10 percent per year.

Hill-Burton Program

The Hill-Burton Program requires obligated facilities to provide free or reduced cost health care to persons unable to pay who reside in the United States and its Territories and who are not fully covered under third-party insurance or a governmental program such as Medicare or Medicaid. Although most of the 6,800 facilities that were once obligated under this program have met their obligations, 246 facilities are still required to provide free or reduced-cost care. Since 1980, almost $6 billion in Hill-Burton uncompensated services has been provided.

Facilities

Healthcare and Other Facilities

HRSA monitors over 600 projects worth almost $500 Million for health care and health-related facilities to meet their design, construction, and equipment needs. There is no obligation to provide uncompensated services, and Congress specifically designates all of the awardees.

Compensation

National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)

Most people who get vaccines have no serious problems. However, vaccines, like any medicines, can rarely cause serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. In those rare cases, the VICP provides compensation to people who are found to be injured by certain vaccines.

Smallpox Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

The Smallpox Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is a secondary payer of medical and lost employment income benefits to individuals who sustained a medical injury, after receiving a smallpox vaccine under an HHS-approved smallpox emergency response plan, or to individuals who contracted vaccinia (the virus in the smallpox vaccine) accidentally from a smallpox vaccine recipient or a contact with such a person.

Poison Control Program

HRSA manages the national toll-free poison help line to access the Nation’s 61 poison control centers and is implementing a public education outreach campaign.

References

[http://www.hrsa.gov/hsb] HRSA Healthcare System Bureau Web Page