To keep communities healthy and safe, public health data modernization should be funded
April 2024
BCHC signed onto a letter urging the House and Senate Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to fund Public Health Data Modernization at the CDC. The letter requests at least $340 million annually.
CDC’s Public Health Data Modernization is a long-term commitment to building and maintaining world-class data systems and workforce that meet the nation’s ongoing need to safeguard health. Public health data is not only needed during an emergency response; it is necessary for people and communities to thrive by rapidly identifying, tracking, and responding to daily public health threats of all types—acute, chronic, and emerging. Public Health Data Modernization plays a critical role to ensure public health receives data from the health care system that is essential to the disease detection and outbreak response efforts that keep communities safe.
So far, Congress has provided an initial down payment of approximately $1 billion for Public Health Data Modernization through annual and supplemental appropriations—which has been critical to catalyzing the work, but consistent annual funding is necessary to maintain improvements, make continued upgrades as technology advances, and support the expert public health workforce.
Providing sustained yearly funding for public health data is a key investment for the continuous improvement of our public health infrastructure, which we estimate will cost $7.8 billion over five years at the state, Tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) levels with additional funding needed to support data efforts at the CDC. By supporting these efforts Congress will directly impact every jurisdiction’s ability to keep their communities safe. So far, Congress has provided an initial down payment of approximately $1 billion for Public Health Data Modernization through annual and supplemental appropriations—which has been critical to catalyzing the work, but consistent annual funding is necessary to maintain improvements, make continued upgrades as technology advances, and support the expert public health workforce. Lack of consistent funding will halt progress, and force health departments to move backwards abandoning projects before completion.
Funding for data modernization will also make possible the work of the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA). An additional $100 million appropriation for CFA in FY25 will fund the Center to facilitate the use of data, modeling, and analytics established by Public Health Data Modernization to improve pandemic preparedness and response. CFA is already transforming our disease modeling capabilities with the initial funds received using data and processes established by Public Health Data Modernization. CDC is using the Response Ready Enterprise Data Integration platform (RREDI) to integrate multiple data streams to provide a full picture that can be used to guide the public health response. Public Health Data Modernization, CFA, and RREDI are each necessary components of the CDC’s data strategy, and each must be funded separately and robustly to help communities stay safe and thrive. Base funding for data modernization must be retained and grow with still additional funds added for CFA and RREDI.
Continuous investment in these crucial activities is essential to ensure the strength and resilience of the nationwide public health data system.
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