U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Rural Health Network Development Planning Program

The purpose of the Network Planning program is to assist in the development of an integrated healthcare network, if the network participants do not have a history of formal collaborative efforts. Health care networks can be an effective strategy to help smaller rural health care providers and health care service organizations align resources and strategies, achieve economies of scale and efficiency, and address challenges more effectively as a group than as single providers.

The Network Planning program promotes the planning and development of healthcare networks in order 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 health care system is undergoing a significant amount of change and this can be particularly challenging for small rural providers. The goals of the Network Planning program represent ways to help rural providers better serve their communities given changes taking place in health care, as providers move from focusing on the volume of services to focusing on the value of services. This program brings together key parts of a rural health care delivery system, particularly those entities that may not have collaborated in the past under a formal relationship, to work together to establish and improve local capacity and coordination of care. This program also supports one year of planning with the primary goal of helping networks create a foundation for their infrastructure and focusing member efforts to address important regional or local community health needs.

Amount: Up to 15 grants of up to $100,000/year will be made.

Eligibility: An entity must be:

• Located in a rural county or eligible rural census tract.
• Public and non-profit entities including faith-based and community organizations and tribal organizations/government.
• In a network with at least two additional organizations, which can be rural, urban, non-profit or for-profit. The network must include three or more health care providers.

Link: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=269291

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