House Passes Ellmers, Wasserman Schultz Bill to Better Train Health Workers to Recognize Human Trafficking

Washington, DC, January 27, 2015
Human trafficking respects no political boundaries and this is not a partisan issue – there is no question among my colleagues and I that we do not want to raise our children in a world where a person can be sold as an object. We will only effectively combat and end human trafficking with a coordinated approach that brings in advocates and service providers from all sectors. Healthcare professionals have a unique and vital role to play in this effort, and H.R. 398 will support them in fulfilling that role.
The House of Representatives passed a series of measures today to combat human trafficking, including a bill written by U.S. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to better train healthcare workers in recognizing the hallmark signs of human trafficking, thus allowing professionals to intervene on a patient’s behalf.
H.R.  398, the Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act of 2015, requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award a grant to a medical or nursing school within each of the 10 administrative regions to develop best practices for health care professionals. These best practices will allow for them to recognize, respond, and intervene on behalf of human trafficking victims.
From this grant, methods will be developed to train health care professionals on evidence-based practices used to help them identify victims of human trafficking when they are present in a healthcare setting. One entity in each of the 10 administrative regions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will create a pilot program to test these best practices, and as a result, the findings of the pilot programs will be referred to as evidence-based methods for identifying the trademark signs associated with victims involved in this crime.  Following this hierarchy, the Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act will direct HHS to disseminate evidence-based best practices on their website and to health care professionals based in schools.
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