2021 Agency Overview

HRSA Programs

HRSA programs support equitable health care for those in need, serving people with low incomes, people with HIV, pregnant people, children, parents, rural communities, transplant patients, other underserved communities, and the health workforce, systems, and facilities that care for them.

Through HRSA’s more than 90 programs and 3,000 grantees, tens of millions of Americans receive quality, affordable health care, and other services. This includes affordable primary care provided by HRSA-supported health centers and health professionals who received HRSA scholarships or loan repayment assistance; HRSA-funded prenatal and postnatal care, newborn and other medical screenings, voluntary home visits, and other maternal and child health services; HIV care and treatment services; rural primary care and substance use treatment programs; discounted prescription drugs; organ transplants; community-based COVID-19 vaccine outreach and education; and much more. Through the Provider Relief Fund and associated programs, HRSA reimburses health care providers for expenses or lost revenues attributable to Coronavirus as well as COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccine administration for uninsured individuals.

In Fiscal Year 2021 alone, HRSA provided nearly $54 billion in funding to support our mission of improving health outcomes and achieving health equity.

Reach of HRSA Programs

Every state in the country has:

HRSA-funded health centers
Clinicians benefiting from HRSA’s workforce loan repayment and scholarship programs
Residents receiving care and treatment services through HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
HRSA-funded maternal and child health programs like infant screenings and prenatal care
Safety net providers that purchase discounted prescription drugs through HRSA’s 340B program
Health care providers who have received Provider Relief Fund and American Rescue Plan rural payments
A HRSA-funded State Office of Rural Health
Services provided by regional Telehealth Resource Centers

Program Highlights

In 2021, HRSA made more than 100,000 provider relief payments, and has reimbursed a total of nearly 130 million COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccine administration claims through the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program.
Nearly 1,400 health centers operating more than 13,500 service delivery sites nationwide provide primary medical, dental, and/or behavioral health care services to nearly 29 million people; more than 25% of patient visits in 2020 were delivered via telehealth.
In 2021, more than 17 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered by health centers; 67 percent were provided to racial and/or ethnic minority patients.
HRSA invested nearly $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan to ensure equity in COVID-19 response in rural communities through Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and small rural hospitals by expanding direct vaccine distribution to these RHC sites, funding local vaccine outreach and education activities, and supporting COVID-19 testing and mitigation.
More than 22,700 clinicians from the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program – a record number of doctors, dentists, nurses, and behavioral health providers – are treating more than 23.6 million patients in underserved communities.
By 2025, HRSA’s Behavioral Health Workforce and Education Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals program is projected to eliminate over 40% of the projected shortfall of behavioral health providers. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, HRSA made 56 additional BHWET awards to behavioral health and training programs this year.
HRSA awarded $323 million to 150 community-based organizations for COVID-19 vaccine outreach and education initiatives to reach vulnerable and medically underserved communities. Local initiatives include:
- engaging community outreach workers fluent in more than 13 spoken languages and American Sign Language;
- organizing mobile vaccination clinics for farmworkers;
- partnering with Black churches to build vaccine confidence; and
- implementing culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach campaigns.
More than 89% of the more than half a million Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clients are virally suppressed in 2020, up from 70% in 2010, and exceeding the most recent national average of 66%.
HRSA awarded $120 million in American Rescue Plan emergency home visiting funds to support children and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as by providing technology to families for virtual home visits.
With funding from the American Rescue Plan, HRSA nearly doubled the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program from 21 states to 40 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Republic of Palau, and two Tribal areas. The program offers expert support via telehealth to pediatric primary care providers so they can diagnose, treat, and refer children with mental health and substance use disorders.
Nearly 4,000 HRSA grant awards include telehealth, which is approximately 37% of HRSA’s total grant awards.
Approximately 39,000 organ transplants were performed in the United States, the highest ever.
More than 13,000 safety-net providers purchased nearly $40 billion worth of medications at discounts of 25-50% through HRSA’s prescription drug discount program.