HR3747-119

What This Bill Does

The AADAPT Act amends the Project ECHO grant program in section 330N of the Public Health Service Act. For the general Project ECHO grant track, eligible entities include organizations that provide or support health care services in rural areas, frontier areas, health professional shortage areas, medically underserved areas, medically underserved populations, Native Americans, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations. The bill also creates a specific grant track for Alzheimer disease and related dementias. Within one year, the Secretary must award one or more grants to public or nonprofit private entities that can lead a technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity-building model for dementia care. Those grants are meant to improve provider retention and increase access to early, accurate diagnosis and quality dementia care.

Who Benefits and How

Rural health care providers benefit from Project ECHO training support that can build specialist knowledge without leaving their communities. Frontier-area clinicians benefit from technology-enabled collaborative learning. Medically underserved patients benefit if local clinicians can diagnose Alzheimer disease and related dementias earlier and manage care better. Native American patients and Tribal health organizations benefit because the eligibility language explicitly includes Native Americans, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations. Public nonprofit dementia-care training entities benefit from a new grant path for Alzheimer disease and related dementia models.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Health and Human Services must award the dementia-care grants within one year and administer the broader Project ECHO eligibility changes. HRSA grant officers must write notices, review applications, and monitor grantees. Grant recipients must run technology-enabled training models and demonstrate capacity-building results. Eligible health care professionals must spend time participating in collaborative learning. Federal taxpayers bear the program cost if Congress appropriates funds for the reauthorized grants.

Key Provisions

• Expands Project ECHO eligible entities for rural, frontier, shortage-area, medically underserved, and Native health care settings.
• Creates a grant track for Alzheimer disease and related dementia care models.
• Requires the Secretary to award one or more dementia-care grants within one year.
• Supports technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity building for eligible health care professionals.
• Directs the grants toward provider retention, early accurate diagnosis, and quality dementia care.