HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy posted funding announcement (HRSA-16-017) on November 3, 2015 seeking applicants for the “Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program” (Network Planning Grant) to be funded at $2,400,000 with up to 24 awards.
The Network Planning Grant program promotes developing integrated healthcare networks. The grant program is required to support multiple (at least three) rural healthcare entities that have not previously collaborated in a formal manner, but want to work together to form a healthcare network. The grant program will support one year of planning on how to develop and assist healthcare networks to become operational.
Funds may be used to support at least one of the following:
- Support system efficiencies and improve regional and/or local rural healthcare services
- Expand access and improve the quality of essential healthcare services
- Strengthen the rural healthcare system as a whole by using a strategy to leverage broadband connectivity to support health IT applications in rural communities
Eligible applicant organizations must be a rural nonprofit or public entity that represents a consortium/network of three or more healthcare providers. The applicant organization must be located in a non-metropolitan county or in a rural census tract of a metropolitan county. The deadline for applications is January 8, 2016.
A technical assistance webinar will be held December 2, 2015 at 2:00 pm EST. To connect to the webinar, go to https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/networkplanningtawebinar. Conference line for audio is 800.593.0693 with the passcode 2922383.
Go to http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppid=27993 to view the full announcement.