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Rural Health Network Development Grant Program

The guidance for the next competitive cycle of the Rural Health Network Development grant program will be released during the summer of 2010 and awards will be issued in the spring of 2011.

Program Purpose
Network Development Grants provide funding to help rural communities strengthen their health care systems. Grants support rural providers for up to three years who work together in formal networks, alliances, coalitions, or partnerships to integrate administrative, clinical, financial, and technological functions across their organizations. This integration of functions and services helps to overcome the fragmentation of health care services in rural areas, improves coordination of those services, and achieves economies of scale. This program does not support direct patient care services.

Network Development Planning Grant Program
Congress recently amended the Network Development program to include Planning Grants as an option for those communities not ready to implement a full Network Development project. More information.

Program Overview
These grants are designed to further ongoing collaborative relationships among health care organizations by funding rural health networks that focus on integrating clinical, information, administrative, and financial systems across members. The goal is to strengthen rural health care systems at the community, regional and State levels by funding these formal, horizontally or vertically integrated networks. Grant funds typically are used to acquire staff, contract with technical experts, and purchase other resources to 'build' or further integrate the network. Grant awards support up to a three-year implementation process. To be eligible, the grant recipient's organizational headquarters must be a rural public or rural nonprofit private entity and must be located in a rural county or in a rural census tract of an urban county. All of the proposed services must be provided in a rural county or census tract. Exceptions to this are 330(g) Migrant Health Clinics who exclusively provide services to migrant and seasonal farm workers in rural areas or a Federally recognized Native American Tribal Government providing all of the proposed services on Federally-recognized Tribal land.

Reference Materials

Grantees
List of FY 2008 New Grant Awards for the Network Development Grant Program
List of FY 2007 New Grant Awards for the Network Development Grant Program
List of FY 2006 New Grant Awards for the Network Development Grant Program
Rural Network Development Grantees for Fiscal Year 2005
The Network Source book

Vol. 1, 1997-2000 (PDF - 609 KB)

Application Information
State Single Point of Contact Listing, OMB
Public Health Service Grant Application Form PHS 5161 (PDF - 746 KB)
Network Development Publications
Building Rural Health Networks: Rural Network Development Grant Program
Organizing for Achievement: Three Rural Health Network Case Studies
Network Development Technical Assistance Program ("TAP") Website