House and Senate Pass Bill to Extend F2F Funding

UPDATE (July 31, 2019):  The House and Senate have both passed a bill to fund Family-to-Family Health Information Centers (F2Fs) for FIVE more years – through FY 2024 – at the current funding level of $6 million per year!  The legislation also makes permanent the provision that requires the establishment of F2Fs for territories and tribes.  Within the next few weeks, the president is expected to sign the bill into law.
The F2F provision was included in a bill, the Sustaining Excellence in Medicaid Act of 2019  (formerly the Empowering Beneficiaries, Ensuring Access, and Strengthening Accountability Act of 2019) (H.R. 3253), that extends several programs, including the Money-Follows-the-Person demonstration program, and the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration program.
The extension of this funding for five years will help F2Fs more effectively and efficiently plan ahead, retain experienced staff, and expand partnerships in the community.
We are very grateful for the bipartisan support of Congress, particularly those Members who made this happen – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), sponsors of the Senate F2F bill; Representatives Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Fred Upton (R-MI), sponsors of the House F2F bill; House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ); Ranking Members of the key committees, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Greg Walden (R-OR); and Representative Deborah Dingell (D-MI), who sponsored the bill to which the F2F provision was added.
It takes a village to raise a child and so too to sustain the critical work of F2Fs!

BACKGROUND: 
Family-to-Family Health Information Centers (F2Fs) are family-led centers providing support to families of children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) and helping them to navigate the health care system so their children can get the care they need.  The federal F2F grant program was created on a bipartisan basis in 2006 to provide funding for F2Fs. Since 2009, when the program was fully phased in, there has been one F2F in each state and the District of Columbia. Thanks to a 2018 amendment to the program, now there are also F2Fs in American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, plus three F2Fs dedicated to serving American Indian and Alaska Native families.  The federal grant for each F2F is $96,750 per year. In 2017, the program was extended through federal FY 2019 (September 30, 2019).
Family Voices Indiana is the F2FHIC for Indiana. We are grateful for this support.

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