Some Stimulus Recipients To Face Increased Scrutiny

Vice President Joe Biden today announced the release of a Presidential memo calling for tighter oversight of recipients of Recovery Act (ARRA) funds.

According to government figures, agencies failed to file reports on 1,036 Recovery Act awards in the last fiscal quarter. Although spending reports were submitted for 65,429 other awards, Biden said the goal should be to have every single federal dollar accounted for.

“After more than a year implementing the Recovery Act, I can proudly say that we’re not only creating jobs across the country, but doing so responsibly and with a level of transparency never before seen in this town,” Biden said. “This Presidential Memorandum will continue to make sure that every dollar is accounted for and every official is held accountable.”

Earl Devaney, Chairman of the independent Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, created by the ARRA, said cracking down on recipients that fail to report is the best way to ensure full accountability.

“I have been a strong advocate of compliance measures that would encourage recipients of Recovery funds to submit their spending reports to the Recovery Board, as required by the Recovery Act,” Devaney said. “The President’s decision to issue a memorandum to the senior officials of executive departments and agencies will go a long way toward helping the Board achieve our goal of 100 percent compliance.”

$600 Million In Education Grants Awarded To Delaware And Tennessee

Delaware and Tennessee school systems will receive hundreds of millions in Recovery Act funds after placing highly in "Race to the Top," the Obama administration's competition for education grants.

"These states received the two highest scores in the competition," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a conference call with reporters Monday. "They have written and passed new laws to support their policies and they have demonstrated the courage, capacity and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students."

Delaware is slated to receive a grant for $100 million and Tennessee will receive $500 million. The two are the only states to receive funds after 40 states initially applied. 16 states qualified as finalists.

The competition is a two phase process. According to Duncan, $3.4 billion in grants will be awarded in the second round and states that did not make the initial cut will be allowed to re-apply.

HHS Giving Non-Profits $10 Million To Help Curb Obesity And Tobacco Use

By Chingyu Wang
Talk Radio News Service

On Friday, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius outlined details of a $10 million grant for non-profit organizations to prevent and control obesity and tobacco use.

In a conference call with reporters, Sebelius presented data showing that in 2007 and 2008, two-thirds of Americans ages 20-74 were either overweight or obese, and that smoking and second-hand smoke remain the number one causes of preventable death in the U.S.

"More than eight million Americans suffer from smoking-related chronic illnesses," Sebelius added.

Sebelius said the Recovery Act funded the Prevention and Wellness Initiative to the tune of $650 million one year ago, adding that HHS has currently developed a new initiative -- Community Putting Prevention to Work -- which focuses on reducing chronic decease and promoting wellness.

The new grant comes on the heels of the launch of First Lady Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' campaign, aimed at preventing childhood obesity.

Nearly $1 Billion In Stimulus Funds Set Aside For Health Care I.T.

$750 million in Recovery Act funds will be allocated toward improving information technology in the health care sector, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday.

“The awards we are talking about today ... help to unleash the power of health I.T. to cut costs, eliminate paper work and most of all help doctors deliver high-powered coordinated health care,” Sebelius said during a conference call with reporters.

According to a statement released by HHS, more than 100,000 medical centers and individual providers will have access to the technologies within the next four years.

The funds are coupled with an additional $225 million from the Recovery Act to train workers in careers based around the soon-to-be-implemented technologies.

Jared Bernstein, the Chief Economist for the office of the Vice President, praised the training programs as a wise investment.

“In every month of this recession, including those at the beginning... the health care sector was adding jobs,” Bernstein explained.

The program, which will be spearheaded by the Department of Labor, is set to provide training for 15,000 workers.

Health Spending Growth Rate Hit All-Time Low In 2008

National health spending grew 4.4% to reach a total of $2.3 trillion in 2008, according to new data released by officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

However, compared to 2007, when the growth rate for health spending was 6%, the figure for 2008 was significantly lower. CMS officials attributed the slow down to after-effects of the struggling economy.

“During periods of recession we often see healthcare spending to be somewhat insulated from the impacts of that recession...but in 2008 we saw...a more immediate impact on the healthcare spending trend...most likely due to the fact that this recession is one of the most severe that we’ve seen since 1933,” said CMS statistician Micah Hartman.

In 2008, while state health spending decreased noticeably, federal health spending accounted for over one-third of total U.S. health spending, caused mainly by an 8.6% growth in Medicare. In addition, federal Medicaid spending grew 8.4%, sparked by a 2.6% increase in enrollment. These occurances were likely aided by passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allowed billions in health spending to be shifted from states to the federal government.

Due to a decline in private health insurance enrollment, the growth rate of private health spending slowed to 2.6% in 2008. Private health insurance plans lost roughly one million enrollees as a result of income and job loss. This in turn, sparked a slow down in the growth rate of private health premiums, which fell from 4.4% in 2007 to 3.1% in 2008.

Prescription drug spending also experienced a drop in growth, going from 4.5% in 2007 to 3.2% in 2008. Aside from the recession, cheaper generic drug prices offered by retailers such as Walmart contributed to the decline.