Sens. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Todd Young, Jack Reed, and Roger Marshall introduced legislation Jan. 28 to reauthorize for five years the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act.
The law, signed in March 2022, provides federal funding to prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among healthcare workers. It is named for Lorna Breen, MD, a physician who worked in New York City during the pandemic and died by suicide April 26, 2020.
Since it was signed, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act has provided $100 million in funding for mental healthcare for providers in the U.S., including $5.6 million for providers at Charlottesville, Va.-based UVA Health, Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University, and Fairfax, Va.-based George Mason University, according to a Jan. 29 news release from lawmakers.
The legislation to reauthorize the law — which is also co-sponsored by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Lisa Murkowski, Jeanne Shaheen and Mark Warner — would reauthorize grant programs through 2029.
"Dr. Lorna Breen was a physician from Charlottesville who tragically died by suicide after working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr. Kaine said in the release. "In 2022, I was honored to work with her family and Sens. Young, Reed and Marshall to pass legislation in her honor to help ensure health care workers have access to the mental health support they need. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in standing with our healthcare heroes by reauthorizing that law, so it can continue to support our healers."
The full text of the bill is available here.