$131M in AHRQ grant cancellations by state

HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has canceled more than 100 research grants totaling $131.3 million in lost funding, according to data shared by AcademyHealth. 

AcademyHealth — a nonprofit focused on health services and policy research — launched a public tracker to document AHRQ grant cancellations. 

The tracker serves to give “researchers, policymakers, reporters and the public a way to see the full picture and the collective impact of dismantling the nation’s only federal agency dedicated to health services research,” AcademyHealth said in a July 28 report.

The AHRQ on July 15 began to cancel funding for research related to strengthening patient safety, care delivery, clinical practice and policy and workforce training.

An HHS spokesperson confirmed certain grants would not receive continued grant funding.

“Under statute, the AHRQ Director must determine whether continuation funding is in the best interest of the federal government,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “AHRQ determined that certain non-competing continuation grants and jointly funded grants would not receive continuation awards.”

Here are the number of canceled research grants by state as of July 29, according to AcademyHealth:

State	Number of canceled grants	Grant focus
Alabama	1	Training the next generation of healthcare researchers.
Arizona	1	A canceled center trained scientists to work inside safety-net health systems.
California	13	Projects included care for children who depend on a tracheostomy to breathe, patients arriving at busy emergency departments and adults managing several chronic illnesses at once, along with grants training the next generation of researchers.
Colorado	4	Projects included helping children with asthma whose families face a language barrier, supporting children who need mental healthcare services.
Connecticut	4	Projects included training new healthcare researchers and supporting the national surveys patients use to report on their care.
Georgia	2	Trained new researchers and worked to improve care for children with a serious kidney condition, especially in underserved families.
Illinois	7	Projects included training new researchers and testing telehealth to give lower-income patients faster access to urgent care.
Indiana	1	Worked to identify patients’ social needs, such as housing and food.
Kentucky	1	Studied how primary care doctors adopt new medical guidelines, work aimed at getting the latest evidence into everyday care faster.
Louisiana	1	Helped nonprofit hospitals and local groups work together to improve the health of their communities.
Massachusetts	14	Projects reached new mothers with chronic conditions, pregnant patients at risk of dangerous complications. and people managing several chronic illnesses, along with grants training the next generation of researchers, including in children’s health.
Maryland	9	Much of the work focused on getting patients the right diagnosis, including catching lung cancer earlier and reducing misdiagnosis in everyday care, along with safer emergency care for older adults and expanding colorectal cancer screening.
Michigan	6	Projects included studying the financial toll of serious illness on families, keeping clinicians healthy and in the workforce, and training the next generation of researchers.
Minnesota	1	Trained scientists to work inside health systems and improve patient care in real time.
Missouri	2	Worked to connect survivors of sexual assault to care and to help patients understand decisions about their own treatment.
Nebraska	1	Worked to help patients manage pain safely after surgery, reducing reliance on opioids once they go home.
New Hampshire	1	Trained scientists embedded in health systems to study and improve patient care.
New Jersey	1	Trained researchers to improve care from inside the health system.
New York	3	Projects included helping people with kidney failure who face unequal access to care and testing digital tools to help patients manage ongoing conditions.
North Carolina	3	Projects included making care for painful kidney stones more consistent and fair across patients.
Ohio	4	Projects included care for children in foster care, pregnant patients living with Type 2 diabetes and patients who depend on an accurate, timely diagnosis.
Oregon	2	Projects included studying how rural patients use telehealth for preventive care, to make virtual care work better for harder-to-reach communities.
Pennsylvania	10	Projects served children with chronic conditions, older adults on both Medicare and Medicaid, and advanced cancer patients who need pain relief. One worked to improve how physicians recognize child abuse and others trained researchers in children’s health.
Rhode Island	2	Trained new researchers and worked to improve care for people with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Tennessee	3	Supported people being treated for opioid use disorder and trained researchers working to improve how care is delivered.
Texas	1	Worked to help more people with kidney failure get on the path to a transplant.
Utah	1	Worked to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use when patients leave the hospital, protecting patients and slowing antibiotic resistance.
Virginia	1	Studied how the buying up of primary care practices affects patients’ access to care and its quality.
Washington	1	Worked to build substance use treatment into primary care.
Wisconsin	2	Projects included making hospital care safer for children.

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