This bill creates a new federal program called the Health Care Workforce Innovation Program to help train more allied health professionals in areas that desperately need them. Allied health professionals include medical assistants, dental hygienists, pharmacy technicians, physical therapists, community health workers, and many other support roles that are essential to running clinics and hospitals.

The program gives grants and contracts to federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and vocational schools to develop new, creative ways to train these professionals. The focus is on getting people from underserved and disadvantaged backgrounds into health care careers, and making sure trained workers stay and practice in rural areas and low-income communities where there's a shortage of health care workers. Organizations can use the money to partner with high schools and colleges, create apprenticeship programs, provide internships, buy training equipment, and offer education that teaches cultural competence and team-based care.

To get funding, organizations must show they're training people in accredited programs, explain how they'll recruit and keep workers, prove their area has a real shortage of health professionals, and demonstrate their approach can be copied in other communities. The program runs for at least three years per grant, with individual grants capped at $2.5 million. The federal government will fund this through 2029, with priority given to projects that bring more diverse workers into health care and improve access to medical, dental, and behavioral health services in underserved areas.