H259 - 2023 Appropriations Act. (SL 2023-134)

Overview: Section 9H.1 of S.L. 2023-134 requires that funds appropriated to the Division of Public Health (DPH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), for each year of the 2023-2025 fiscal biennium to award competitive grants to local health departments for the improvement of maternal and child health must be used to continue administering a competitive grant process for local health departments based on maternal and infant health indicators and the county's detailed proposal to invest in evidence based programs to achieve the following goals:

1. Improve North Carolina's birth outcomes.
2. Improve the overall health status of children in this State from birth to age five.
3. Lower the State's infant mortality rate.
4. Plan for Administering Grants - The plan for administering the competitive grant process must include specified components. These components include the following:
   • A request for application (RFA) process to allow local health departments to apply for and receive State funds on a competitive basis. DHHS must require local health departments to include specified information in the application.
   • A requirement that the Secretary of DHHS (Secretary) prioritize grant awards to those local health departments that are able to leverage non-State funds in addition to the grant award.
   • Assurances that funds received by DHHS to implement the plan supplement and do not supplant existing funds for maternal and child health initiatives.
   • Grants may be awarded to local health departments for up to two years.
5. Awarding the Grants and Reporting - The Secretary must announce the recipients of the competitive grant awards and allocate fund to recipients no later than July 1 each year. Then the Secretary is required to submit a report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services that specifies the following for each grant award: the identity and a brief description of each grantee and each program or initiative offered by the grantee; the amount of funding awarded; and the number of persons served by each grantee, broken down by program or initiative.
6. Local Public Health Department Reports on Grant Activities – No later than February 1 of each year, each local health department receiving funding pursuant to the section in the respective fiscal year must submit to DPH a written report of all activities funded by State appropriations. The report must include the following specific information about the fiscal year preceding the year in which the report is due:
7. A description of the types of programs, services, and activities funded by State appropriations.
8. Statistical and demographic information on the number of persons served by these programs, services, and activities, including the counties in which services are provided.
9. Outcome measures that demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of the programs, services, and activities based on the evaluation protocols developed by DPH, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, pursuant to Section 12E.11(e) of S.L. 2015-241, and reported to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services on April 1, 2016.
10. A detailed program budget and list of expenditures, including all positions funded, matching expenditures, and funding sources.

This section became effective July 1, 2023.