4140 Statewide Health Planning, Development
Program Descriptions

3835 - HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE

The Health Care Workforce Program supports the development and expansion of primary care, mental health, dental health, and allied health training throughout the state, promotes health care workforce diversity and cultural competency, encourages providers to work in underserved areas through strategies focused on pipeline development, training and placement, financial incentives, systems redesign, as well as research and policy, and promotes the recruitment of students into health professions. It includes the following program areas:
  • Health Careers Training Program - Serves as a health professions resource and liaisons between public and private partnerships to promote recruitment, training, placement, and retention of a multicultural and linguistically competent health workforce in California and provides grants to organizations supporting underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students' pursuit of careers in health care.
  • Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Program - Provides grant funds to family practice residency, primary care residency, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and registered nurse training programs to increase the number and improve the distribution of these professionals in underserved areas of the state.
  • California State Loan Repayment Program - Increases the number of licensed primary care physicians, dentists, dental hygienists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, mental health providers and pharmacists practicing in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas. Repays educational loans of health professionals, who in turn must provide direct patient care in public or private non-profit entities for a minimum of two years.
  • Mental Health Services Act Workforce Education and Training Program - The MHSA WET program aims to address mental/behavioral health workforce issues in California's Public Mental Health System. The WET program funds organizations to provide career awareness, student and practitioner financial incentives, education capacity expansion, recruitment and retention, regional workforce development, and consumer and family member employment support.
  • Health Workforce Pilot Projects Program - Allows healthcare organizations to test, demonstrate, and evaluate new or expanded roles for health care professionals or new health care delivery alternatives before changes in licensing laws are made by the Legislature. Trainees in approved pilot projects are exempted from other provisions of law and results from these pilot project guide changes to scope of practice statutes.
  • Shortage Designation Program - Liaisons between the federal government and health care provider sites applying for designation as a Health Professional Shortage Area or a Medically Underserved Area/Population. These designations enable clinics to draw down additional federal funds by making them eligible for assignment of National Health Service Corps personnel or apply for Rural Health Clinic certification, Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike certification, and the New Start/Expansion Program.
  • Health Care Reform Program - Monitors progress of the Affordable Care Act, develops recommendations to further the state's healthcare workforce, identifies and promotes federal funding opportunities, engages stakeholders on federal/state health workforce development activities and provides analysis of health reform initiatives.
  • Health Care Workforce Clearinghouse Program (Clearinghouse) - Serves as the state's central repository of health care workforce and education information via the collection, analysis and distribution of educational, licensing and employment data and trends.
  • California's Student/Resident Experiences and Rotations in Community Health (CalSEARCH) - Provides clinical rotations, externships, internships and employment opportunities in underserved communities to students and existing practitioners in primary care, mental health and allied health.
  • Health Professions Education Foundation (a non-profit public benefit corporation) - Provides scholarships and loan repayments to health professional students and graduates who agree to provide services in underserved areas of California for one to three years. Programs serve allied health, nursing, mental health, dentistry, and physician professionals.