Frontier Community Health Integration Project Technical Assistance, Tracking, and Analysis Program | HRSA 17 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 17 001

The Frontier Community Health Integration Project (FCHIP) Technical Assistance, Tracking, and Analysis (TA) Program is a federal grant opportunity designed to support a small set of rural hospitals taking part in a Medicare demonstration focused on frontier communities. The program’s central aim is to provide hands-on technical assistance and ongoing analytic support to ten Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) that were selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in the FCHIP demonstration. These hospitals are located in three sparsely populated states: Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota. The broader demonstration is meant to test practical, real-world changes to how care is delivered and coordinated in remote areas, and how Medicare reimbursement rules can be adjusted to better fit the realities of frontier health care.

At its core, the technical assistance funded through this opportunity must help participating CAHs implement one or more of three specific interventions that CMS is testing through waiver authority. The first intervention focuses on ambulance services by waiving the standard “35-mile rule,” which typically limits when a CAH can receive cost-based reimbursement for ambulance transport. Under the waiver, these hospitals can pursue cost-based reimbursement for ambulance services even if there are other nearby providers, reflecting the fact that “nearby” can still be functionally inaccessible in frontier terrain and weather. The second intervention targets telehealth financing by waiving the fixed $25 originating site facility fee. Instead of that flat payment, the waiver allows reimbursement at 101 percent of allowable costs associated with telehealth, including overhead, staff salaries and fringe benefits, and depreciation of telehealth equipment. The third intervention modifies inpatient capacity rules by waiving the traditional 25-bed limit for CAHs, allowing up to 10 additional beds to be used specifically for skilled nursing facility (SNF) or nursing facility (NF) levels of care. This is intended to help frontier hospitals cover local post-acute and long-term care needs when nursing facilities may be scarce or distant.

Beyond supporting these three waiver-based interventions, the TA Program is also expected to provide broader operational support that helps the hospitals succeed in the demonstration and document what works. This includes assistance with quality measurement and performance improvement efforts, helping hospitals choose and track meaningful metrics, interpret results, and run improvement projects that fit their staffing and resource constraints. It also includes strategic planning support aimed at improving patient access to services, which in frontier contexts often means creatively addressing workforce shortages, transportation barriers, limited specialty availability, and care coordination across long distances. In addition, the program includes tracking, analytic, and administrative functions tailored to each CAH’s needs, recognizing that the ten participating hospitals may implement different combinations of interventions and may require different levels of support to comply with demonstration requirements and report outcomes.

Administratively, this funding opportunity is offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), specifically the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial federal involvement in the project’s execution (for example, coordination with HRSA/CMS priorities, regular communication, and structured reporting). The opportunity is listed under CFDA 93.155 and was published as HRSA-17-001. The source information indicates an expected number of awards of one, meaning HRSA anticipated selecting a single organization to operate the technical assistance, tracking, and analysis function on behalf of all ten CAHs, acting as a centralized support and evaluation resource for the demonstration.

The timing details included in the notice place the demonstration’s operational start date at August 1, 2016 under CMS administration, with the HRSA funding announcement created on December 8, 2016 and an original application closing date of March 13, 2017. Additional descriptive information about the underlying FCHIP demonstration is available through CMS’s Innovation Center initiative page. Overall, this opportunity is less about funding direct medical services and more about funding the expert support infrastructure that helps frontier hospitals implement payment and service delivery waivers effectively, improve quality, and generate credible data and lessons that can inform future rural health policy.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Frontier Community Health Integration Project Technical Assistance, Tracking, and Analysis Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.155.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 08, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 13, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 17 001

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: