S. 2169 would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to recommend ways to improve the recruitment and training of cyber professionals at rural hospitals. The bill also would require HHS to develop and disseminate training materials for cybersecurity employees of rural hospitals.
Using information from HHS about similar efforts, CBO anticipates that preparing the reports and developing online training resources for rural hospital employees would increase the department’s workload by the equivalent of two full-time employees. CBO estimates that staff salaries and technology costs to publish instructional materials would total $8 million over the 2026-2030 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Aldo Prosperi. The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
