Rural Health Networks - Start One Today!
For the past eight years I have been fortunate enough to be the Network Director for a rural health network in northern California, the CA299 Health Collaborative. Our humble beginning brought together four core, and eventually 10 in total, health care organizations together to see how they could support each other and access to health care for the region. Members are located along the CA299 Highway extending from Round Mountain in Shasta County to Surprise Valley in Modoc County. At the time, we hadn’t yet experienced the roll out of the Affordable Care Act and all the organizations interested in coming together were financially strapped. Serious concerns around the future of health care and the related jobs hung in the air with every discussion and decision.
That was then – today we’ve steadily come together over the years to increase care coordination through HIE utilization and care transition, to recruit provider staff and allied health professionals to the region, plan for the development of an Accountable Care Organization, and tackle the opioid crisis. Currently, we have seven members and two HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy grants (Rural Health Network Development Planning & Rural Health Opioid Program) to support our work for the next few years. These are our third and fourth HRSA grants, and they are leading us in new directions including value-based contracting and direct patient care.
I’ll share more details on our journey in later posts but right now I just want to encourage those of you who are rural and want to develop care transition programs, tackle the opioid crisis through a regional approach, expand HIE utilization in your rural region, or other collaborative efforts to go after it now. Become the champion, nag anyone you have to and start bringing people together in a meaningful way. You don’t have to start large. HRSA only requires three organizations to apply for the Network Development Planning Program.
On Friday, HRSA released a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) HRSA-19-081, Rural Communities Opioid Response Program – Planning. This could be a great start for a rural health network. The grant is for $200,000 for one year and is focused on a regional plan for opioid response as well as individual member readiness.
List of Forecasted Funding Opportunities
There are five forecasted funding opportunities. Well, actually four for most of us. One only is for the Delta States which is for release in the next few months with funding starting in May of 2019 that could support both your planning and collaborative development work. Below is what we know so far about the grants and cooperative agreements from the HRSA grants.gov website. The Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program grant was released about 3 years ago and HRSA has released some opioid grants, so you can get an understanding of what they have looked for in the past to begin your planning for those two opportunities.
I am trying to find a copy of the funding notice for the last Rural Residency Planning and Development Program if there was one. I’d also like to get the last Rural Residency Program funding notice. If anyone has those, could you drop me an email? Thanks and have a great week!
WH-AST-19-002 Program for Women of Reproductive Age Misusing Opioids in Rural Primary Care Settings
Opioid misuse by women during their reproductive years presents a unique opportunity for public health programs to intervene and not only reduce harms to young women, but also to unborn and newborn babies. There is a particular need for this focus in rural areas and to use approaches that meet the unique needs of women. The screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment services (SBIRT) is an evidence-based approach that is widely used in substance abuse care settings. However, it is not widely applied in women’s health primary care settings. This initiative calls for the development of an innovative gender-informed opioids programs in primary care settings for women who misuse opioids living in rural areas using the SBIRT approach and evaluate its outcomes.
Grantees will modify, implement and evaluate the SBIRT approach to take a rural-sensitive and approach that meet the unique needs of women. Adaptation of SBIRT may include rural specific access issues and identification of other critical linkages to services from multiple sectors including but not limited to legal assistance; law enforcement; mental health services; substance abuse treatments; and housing.
Estimated Synopsis Post Date: Dec 28, 2018
Estimated Application Due Date: Mar 29, 2019
Estimated Award Date: Jun 17, 2019
Estimated Project Start Date: Jul 01, 2019
Fiscal Year: 2019
Estimated Total Program Funding: $2,000,000
Award Ceiling: $750,000
Award Floor: $300,000
HRSA-19-088 Rural Residency Planning and Development Program
The purpose of this grant program is to develop new rural residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry, to support expansion of the physician workforce in rural areas. The new rural residency programs are intended to be sustainable through separate public or private funding beyond the RRPD grant period of performance. The funds will support planning and development costs accrued while achieving program accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Estimated Synopsis Post Date: Sep 04, 2018
Estimated Application Due Date: Nov 30, 2018
Estimated Project Start Date: May 01, 2019
Fiscal Year: 2019
Estimated Total Program Funding: $12,000,000
HRSA-19-081 Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Planning
The program is part of a multi-year, $100,000,000 opioid effort by FORHP that will include improving access to and recruitment of new substance use disorder providers; building sustainable treatment resources, increasing use of telehealth; establishing cross-sector community partnerships, and implementing new models of care, including integrated behavioral health.
Estimated Synopsis Post Date: Nov 01, 2018
Estimated Application Due Date: Dec 17, 2018
Estimated Project Start Date: May 01, 2019
Fiscal Year: 2019
Estimated Total Program Funding: $14,000,000
HRSA-19-018 Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program
The purpose of this program is to provide support to rural primary care providers for implementation of quality improvement activities. Quality health care is the provision of appropriate services to individuals and populations that are consistent with current professional knowledge, in a technically competent manner, with good communication, shared decision-making and cultural sensitivity. The ultimate goal of the program is to promote the development of an evidence-based culture and delivery of coordinated care in the primary care setting. Additional objectives of the program include: improved health outcomes for patients; enhanced chronic disease management; and better engagement of patients and their caregivers.
Estimated Synopsis Post Date: Dec 21, 2018
Estimated Application Due Date: Feb 22, 2019
Estimated Project Start Date: Aug 01, 2019
Fiscal Year: 2019
Estimated Total Program Funding: $4,150,000
HRSA-19-017 Delta States Rural Development Network Program
The purpose of the Delta Program is to fund organizations located in the eight Delta States that promote, through planning and implementation, the development of integrated health care networks that have combined the functions of the eligible entities participating in the networks in or to: achieve efficiencies; expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and strengthen the rural health care system as a whole. The Delta Program provides resources to help rural communities develop partnerships to jointly address health problems that could not be solved by single entities working alone.
Estimated Synopsis Post Date: Jan 24, 2019
Estimated Application Due Date: Mar 25, 2019
Estimated Project Start Date: Aug 01, 2019
Fiscal Year: 2019
Estimated Total Program Funding: $9,600,000