Rep. Pete Aguilar announced that SAC Health System (SACHS), an Inland Empire community health care provider, has received more than $5 million in federal grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funding includes $2,850,400 from the Teaching Health Center (THC) program and $2,625,000 from the Medication-Assisted Treatment – Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction grant program.

“SACHS continues to be a leader in providing low-cost, high-quality care to Inland Empire residents. From ensuring a new generation of medical professionals can receive their training right here in our community, to providing treatment to help end the opioid epidemic, this funding will go a long way toward ensuring easily-accessible and affordable health care in our region. I’ve been proud to support these programs, and will continue working to expand health care access in San Bernardino County,” said Aguilar.

“We have had 8 years of continuous Teaching Health Center funding at SAC Health System, but the funding was tenuous at first. It was with the help of Rep. Aguilar in 2015 that federal funding was continued, and his support has been reliable throughout the duration of the program here. To date nearly $32 million of THC funding has supported the training of 85 primary care residents. These doctors go to practice in a variety of underserved settings, meeting the needs of people in our local community, the Inland Empire, and across the country,” said Kevin Shannon, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, LLU School of Medicine, and SACHS Chief Officer of Quality & Compliance.

Jason Lohr, MD, President and CEO of SAC Health System said, “SACHS is honored to be awarded funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for the Medication-Assisted Treatment – Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction grant. This funding will help SACHS to expand access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services for persons with an opioid use disorder (OUD) who are seeking or receiving MAT services. SACHS will utilize our existing successful model to expand services to our current 9 sites in San Bernardino, Rialto, Murrieta, Indio and our mobile unit. SACHS is so thankful to Congressman Aguilar for his support of all of our efforts.”

Aguilar serves on the House Appropriations Committee, the committee responsible for determining funding levels for federal agencies and programs.