Healthcare Systems Bureau

The Healthcare Systems Bureau (HSB) protects the public health and improves the health of individuals through an array of programs that provide national leadership and direction in targeted areas.

Organ Donation and Transplantation

HSB's Organ Donation and Transplantation programs extend and enhance the lives of individuals with end-stage organ failure for whom an organ transplant is the most appropriate therapeutic treatment.

Key elements of the program are

Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the national system that allocates and distributes donor organs to individuals waiting for an organ transplant;
Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), a national database of statistics related to solid organ transplantation -- kidney, liver, pancreas, intestine, heart, and lung; and
Efforts to increase the supply of donor organs made available for transplantation.

C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program

The C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program provides support to patients who need a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant or cord blood transplant. For some patients who have leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other inherited metabolic or immune system disorders, a marrow or cord blood transplant may be their best chance to live longer, healthier lives.

The National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI) is charged with building a genetically and ethnically diverse inventory of 150,000 new units of high-quality umbilical cord blood for transplantation. These cord blood units, as well as other units in the inventories of participating cord blood banks, are made available to physicians and patients for blood stem cell transplants through the C. W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, which is authorized by the same law.

Poison Control Program

The Poison Control Program makes grants to regional poison centers to help them prevent and provide treatment recommendations for poisoning. The program also conducts a national poisoning awareness and prevention campaign and operates a national toll-free phone number that connects callers with their local poison center.

340B Drug Pricing Program

The Office of Pharmacy Affairs administers the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which provides discounted pharmaceuticals to more than 14,000 safety net health care delivery sites. The program requires manufacturers to give 340B participants a discount of at least 15.1 percent below AMP (Average Manufacturer Price) on brand name drugs and 11 percent below AMP on generic drugs.

Injury Compensation Programs

Two HRSA programs give individuals harmed by vaccines and, in the case of declared national health emergencies, other medical interventions, a streamlined system for compensation for their injuries.

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program provides compensation to people found to be injured by certain vaccines given routinely to children and adults, such as seasonal flu vaccine, measles, mumps, rubella or polio.

The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program provides compensation to individuals for serious physical injuries or deaths from pandemic, epidemic, or security countermeasures, such as the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine (swine flu vaccine) and treatments.

State Health Access Program

The State Health Access Program awards grants to states to help them expand access to affordable healthcare coverage for people who are uninsured. States can use any number of approaches, including three share community coverage, reinsurance plans, subsidized high risk insurance pools, health insurance premium assistance, statewide or automated enrollment systems for public assistance programs or other innovative strategies.

Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Program

The National Hansen’s Disease Program (NHDP) has cared for people with Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) and related conditions since 1921. The Program provides medical care to any patient living in the United States or Puerto Rico through direct patient care at its facilities in Louisiana, an inpatient program in Hawaii, and 11 regional outpatient clinics. Currently there are 2,888 patients care for through the NHDP’s outpatient clinics. The Program also provides training to health professionals, and conducts scientific research at the world’s largest and most comprehensive laboratory dedicated to Hansen’s Disease. The Program is the only dedicated provider of expert Hansen’s Disease treatment services in the United States and a crucial source of continuing education for providers dealing with the identification and treatment of the disease in the United States.

Research conducted by the NHDP has led to the development and implementation of sophisticated cell and molecular biology tools used to study human disease. NHDP plays an integral role in the quest for a more complete understanding of Hansen's disease and translation of basic research findings into an internationally coordinated program designed to improve prevention and treatment.

Developed by the National Hansen's Disease Program, Lower Extremity Amputation Prevention (LEAP) is a comprehensive program that can dramatically reduce lower extremity amputations in individuals with diabetes mellitus, Hansen's disease, or any condition that results in loss of protective sensation in the feet.

Did You Know?

Today and every day, about 77 people in the U.S. receive an organ transplants and 19 people die waiting for a donated organ.
At any given time, 6,000 patients are searching for a matched marrow donor or cord blood unit.
By participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, safety net providers will save approximately $2.5 billion on their estimated $5 billion outpatient drug expenditures this year.
More than $1.8 billion has been awarded to 2,428 Vaccine Injury Compensation Program claimants since 1989.