The federal government notified the state that Alaska’s Division of Public Health won’t receive millions of dollars in public health grants it was expecting over the next two years.
The state Department of Health, which oversees the division, did not agree to an interview for this story, but spokesperson Alex Huseman said by email that the grants were terminated March 24.
"The funds were meant to address the continued impact of COVID-19 on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses,” Huseman said. “The Department is actively assessing potential impacts and next steps for our staff, programs, and activities.”
Dr. Anne Zink, who led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as chief medical officer, said the money was also intended to reduce the impact of future disease outbreaks and pandemics.
“I worry that without letting (the projects) finish, we will be set back tremendously again,” Zink said. “It's hard to know for sure, but it feels like decades of lessons learned are going backwards if we lose this.”
In a meeting last week, division leaders announced the federal government had cut the funds because the COVID pandemic is over, according to a source who works in the division. The source, who did not want to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media, said a major aim of the funding was to protect the state against future pandemics or public health emergencies.
The state did not give an estimate of the total amount of funding lost, but the source provided documents showing the grants amounted to $25 million in funds already allocated by Congress. An additional $18 million has already been awarded to state organizations and contractors, they say, and the future of those funds is uncertain and complicated legally.
Zink said stopping the funding partway through projects is a waste of money and effort.
“The money that was already spent may not be realized in its benefit to Alaskans, because we may not be able to finish the project, or we started something and can't get it done,” Zink said.
One of the state projects that is losing funding is an electronic records sharing system, which is partially finished.
Zink said the system would allow for data sharing between public health and the broader healthcare system to help them communicate and work better together.
The division source said the COVID-era funding was also focused on reducing health disparities across the state, especially in rural Alaska, and such major cuts will have a devastating ripple effect throughout all Alaska public health programs.
“Everybody is going to feel this,” they said. “People who are trying to quit smoking, they are potentially going to call for that resource and it's not going to be there anymore. People who are seeking to have extra Narcan doses through Project Hope might find that they can't get the doses they need.”
Project Hope is an organization that distributes free opioid reversal treatments like Narcan.
The source said about 50 people, 10% of the division’s staff, are employed fully with funds from the eliminated grants. They said the state aims to cover some of the missing grants with other federal funding sources.
The source said the division directs these grants to organizations working in communities, and on projects communities identify as important for public health reasons.
A majority of the funding, they said, has gone toward expanding rural health access, but the Anchorage Health Department has also received a big chunk of funding to reduce disparities in urban areas.
Michelle Fehribach, a spokesperson for the Anchorage Health Department, said they “don’t currently have enough information to ascertain how the (Municipality of Anchorage) may be impacted by this decision.”
Zink said the grants were aimed at the biggest public health concerns in Alaska.
“These dollars were very tailored to what Alaskans need and want, and these were not federal dollars telling us how to practice or what to do,” Zink said. “Alaska got the opportunity to decide if we were going to apply for them or not, and apply for them, in ways that met the department's goal of the health well being and self-sufficiency of Alaskans. And to have those dollars cut, which are Alaskan taxpayer dollars, is going to hurt Alaskans, and that is hard for me to watch.”
It’s unclear whether the state will be able to pay the contracts that have already been promised to organizations and communities across the state.
Editor's note: Anne Zink is a host of the program Line One: Your Health Connection on Alaska Public Media.
