House passes AHA-supported violence prevention bill

The House of Representatives yesterday passed by voice vote the Bipartisan Solution to Cyclical Violence Act (H.R. 5855), AHA-supported legislation that would create a $10 million Department of Health and Human Services grant program to fund violence prevention programs linked to trauma centers and examine their effect on re-incarceration and readmission rates. The awards to hospitals would range from $250,000 to $500,000, and each hospital would report on its findings at the end of the three-year pilot. 
 
“Your bill would provide valuable resources for hospitals to implement violence prevention programs that will help further our mission to improve the overall health of the communities we serve,” AHA said in a July letter of support to the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. 
 
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. The AHA’s Hospitals Against Violence initiative offers tools and resources to help the hospital field combat violence in all its forms.