Public Health Capacity and the American Rescue Plan: Will Increased Funding for the Public Health Workforce Reshape the Health System?

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on the nation's public health infrastructure. Specifically, how state public health agencies are using ARPA funds to innovate (or not) in strategic areas such as staffing, surveillance, acquisition and exchange of data, advancing equity, and coordination with safety net and primary care providers. By selecting four state prototypes that represent both organizational (centralized, decentralized, shared) and geographic diversity, the project team will conduct key informant interviews with state and local leaders and literature reviews to assess how states were able to respond to the infusion of ARPA resources, what challenges arose, what lessons will be suggested by different approaches and ultimately, whether the investments enhanced the state's ability to modernize the public health infrastructure and diversify and bolster the public health workforce.