§ 300d–73 — Maintenance Of The Poison Control Center Grant Program

(a) The Secretary shall award grants to poison control centers accredited under subsection (c) (or granted a waiver under subsection (d)) and professional organizations in the field of poison control for the purposes of preventing, and providing treatment recommendations for, poisonings and toxic exposures and complying with the operational requirements needed to sustain the accreditation of the center under subsection (c). (b) In addition to the purposes described in subsection (a), a poison center or professional organization awarded a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement under such subsection may also use amounts received under such grant, contract, or cooperative agreement— (1) to research, establish, implement, and evaluate best practices in the United States for poisoning and toxic exposure prevention, poison control center outreach, and emergency preparedness and response programs; (2) to research, develop, implement, revise, and communicate standard patient management guidelines for commonly encountered toxic exposures; (3) to improve national toxic exposure surveillance by enhancing cooperative activities between poison control centers in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other government agencies as determined to be appropriate and nonduplicative by the Secretary; (4) to research, improve, and enhance the communications and response capability and capacity of the nation’s network of poison control centers to facilitate increased access to the centers through the integration and modernization of the current poison control centers communications and data system, including enhancing the network’s telephony, Internet, data and social networking technologies; (5) to develop, support, and enhance technology and capabilities of professional organizations in the field of poison control to collect national poisoning, toxic occurrence, and related public health data; (6) to develop initiatives to foster the enhanced public health utilization of national poison data collected by organizations described in paragraph (5); (7) to support and expand the toxicologic expertise within poison control centers; and (8) to improve the capacity of poison control centers to answer high volumes of contacts and Internet communications, and to sustain and enhance the poison control center’s network capability to respond during times of national crisis or other public health emergencies. (c) Except as provided in subsection (d), the Secretary may award a grant to a poison control center under subsection (a) only if— (1) the center has been accredited by a professional organization in the field of poison control, and the Secretary has approved the organization as having in effect standards for accreditation that reasonably provide for the protection of the public health with respect to poisoning; or (2) the center has been accredited by a State government, and the Secretary has approved the State government as having in effect standards for accreditation that reasonably provide for the protection of the public health with respect to poisoning. (1) The Secretary may grant a waiver of the accreditation requirements of subsection (c) with respect to a nonaccredited poison control center that applies for a grant under this section if such center can reasonably demonstrate that the center will obtain such an accreditation within a reasonable period of time as determined appropriate by the Secretary. (2) The Secretary may renew a waiver under paragraph (1). (A) The sum of the number of years for a waiver under paragraph (1) and a renewal under paragraph (2) may not exceed 5 years. (B) Notwithstanding any previous waivers, in the case of a poison control center whose accreditation is affected by a public health emergency declared pursuant to section 247d of this title, the Secretary may, as the circumstances of the emergency reasonably require, provide a waiver under paragraph (1) or a renewal under paragraph (2), not to exceed 2 years. The Secretary may require quarterly reports and other information related to such a waiver or renewal under this paragraph. (e) Amounts made available to a poison control center under this section shall be used to supplement and not supplant other Federal, State or local funds provided for such center. (f) With respect to activities for which a grant is awarded under this section, the Secretary may require that poison control centers agree to maintain the expenditures of the center for such activities at a level that is not less than the level of expenditures maintained by the center for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the grant is received. (g) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section, $28,600,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029. The Secretary may utilize an amount not to exceed 6 percent of the amount appropriated under this preceding sentence in each fiscal year for coordination, dissemination, technical assistance, program evaluation, data activities, and other program administration functions, which are determined by the Secretary to be appropriate for carrying out the program under this section. (h) Not later than 2 years after December 20, 2019, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report concerning the operations of, and trends identified by, the Poison Control Network. Such report shall include— (1) descriptions of the activities carried out pursuant to sections 300d–71, 300d–72, and 300d–73 of this title, and the alignment of such activities with the purposes provided under subsection (a); (2) a description of trends in volume of contacts to poison control centers; (3) a description of trends in poisonings and toxic exposures reported to poison control centers, as applicable and appropriate; (4) an assessment of the impact of the public awareness campaign, including any geographic variations; (5) a description of barriers, if any, preventing poison control centers from achieving the purposes and programs under this section and sections 300d–71 and 300d–72 of this title; (6) a description of the standards for accreditation described in subsection (c), including any variations in those standards, and any efforts to create and maintain consistent standards across organizations that accredit poison control centers; and (7) the number of and reason for any waivers provided under subsection (d).