North Dakota opens Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Acquisition, $2 million for wheelchair-accessible vans
Published Q&As across the program continue to yield intelligence
August doldrums seem to have arrived in state procurement offices. Yesterday’s scrpaing run was light so I held items for today. Also: eyeball this and let me know what you think: Rural Health Transformation Program State-by-State Reference Guide (free to all)
In this issue
North Dakota closes School-Based Wellness Equipment with 68 applicants
Rhode Island schedules an August 13 technical assistance session for its Rural Community Health Networks application
North Dakota answers the vendors circling Technology as an Extender with a one-word no
Tennessee holds forth on entity-determination guidance
Colorado closes its RHTP RFA; award announcements set for September
North Dakota opens Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Acquisition, $2 million for wheelchair-accessible vans
Michigan names its RHTP Advisory Council, and tells you not to call them
Washington issues Amendment 1 to RFA 2026HCA9, and clawbacks are prominent
North Dakota closes School-Based Wellness Equipment with 68 applicants
Zero-Hour Physical Education Initiative — $700,000, an estimated 10 awards of approximately $70,000, closed May 22. 23 applicants. About 2.3 applications per available award.
Community Gardens Project — $300,000, an estimated 10 awards of approximately $30,000, closed May 22. 45 applicants. About 4.5 per award.
School-Based Wellness Equipment — $500,000, an estimated 20 awards of approximately $25,000, closed July 30. 68 applicants. About 3.4 per award.
Rural North Dakota’s appetite for small, non-clinical, community-scale money runs between two and four and a half times what the state budgeted for it. And these are the least glamorous lines in the whole portfolio — gym equipment, garden beds, an extra period of PE before the school day starts.
The state’s larger opportunities close through August — Electronic Medical Record Enhancement at $10 million, Rural Ambulance Modernization at $22 million, Technology as an Extender at $5 million.
Rhode Island schedules an August 13 technical assistance session for its Rural Community Health Networks application
To learn more about this funding opportunity, attend a technical assistance session on Thursday, August 13 at 2 p.m. on Teams.
North Dakota answers the vendors circling Technology as an Extender with a one-word no
North Dakota HHS posted a Technology as an Extender FAQ yesterday.
Three of the questions come from vendors whose product raises a facility’s revenue rather than treating a patient — one describes itself as specializing in locating missing patient insurance information on claims already written off. A fourth asks whether an out-of-state vendor can apply at all. North Dakota’s answer:
No. As stated in the Technology as an Extender Funding Opportunity, the following North Dakota entities are eligible to submit an application: critical access hospitals, rural emergency hospitals, non-federally operated Indian Health Service facilities and tribally run 638 facilities, clinics, federally qualified health centers serving at least 50% North Dakota rural residents or whose grant funding will be used to serve North Dakota rural residents, skilled nursing facilities and basic care facilities.
The applicant is always a North Dakota rural facility. The vendor is never the applicant. Anyone reading that as a rejection has misread it — the buyer is a critical access hospital with $250,000 and a twelve-day clock, and the job is to be in the application, not on it.
Three more interesting answers:
Assisted living is out, and the state acknowledges the contradiction
Applying to one opportunity does not block you from another, but you can only sign one agreement
CMS has not finalized reporting requirements
The two handouts posted alongside the FAQ are accessible companion documents for technical assistance calls that already happened — Technology as an Extender from the July 30 call presented by Bobbie Will, and Childcare for the Rural Workforce from the July 23 call presented by Colette Greek.
Tennessee holds forth on entity-determination guidance
Tennessee’s rural health page got a new frequently asked question yesterday. The question is “Can you define the term ‘entity’ and how this designation is determined for RHTP applicants?”
Answer: The state will no longer rely solely on TIN/EIN status. It will also weigh organizational name, affiliations, operational structure, and other relevant factors, and it tells applicants to rely on this guidance when preparing and submitting applications.
Same policy Tennessee issued June 16, inside Amendment 2 to the Maternal/Infant and Child Health Healthcare Resiliency Program procurement, which went out by email to that one solicitation’s list. What changed is reach. It is now general guidance across every Tennessee RHTP opportunity, visible to organizations that were never on that distribution list.
The timing is awkward. Health Technology and Innovation and Make Rural Tennessee Healthy Again (MaRTHA) both closed August 3. Rural Fetal and Infant Wellness closes today. Five RFPs remain open through General Services:
Five Tennessee RHTP RFPs remain open through General Services, and the entity question shapes how each of them can be bid:
Provider-to-Provider Electronic Consultation (e-Consult) Services, RFP 34320-19927, due August 14
Pregnancy and Postpartum Mobile Device Education Application, RFP 34320-19527, due August 14
Community Health Access and Navigation Call Center, RFP 34320-19126, due August 24
RHTP Marketing and Advertising Services, RFP 34320-21227, due August 26
Healthcare Management Consulting Services, RFP 34320-20827, due September 3
Colorado closes its RHTP RFA; award announcements set for September
The RHTP team anticipates making our award announcements by the end of September 2026.
