Note: KFF Health News is up with States Bet Big on Rural Health Startups, With a Silicon Valley Twist, where I’m quoted talking about the “the clawbacks and the craziness of October”. Our subscriber-only quarterly report, due out October 1, will detail every Tech Catalyst Fund and all of the awards that mimic the purpose of catalysing tech in rural healthcare. Subscribe now.
In this issue:
Virginia’s NSVRC posts the Q&A Addendum for Mobile and Hybrid Care, and says yes to for-profit and vendor-led applicants two days before applications close
Mississippi announces 167 Rural Health Transformation Program Awards Totaling More Than $104 Million
South Carolina posts its SC RHTP Year 1 Award List, 228 projects for $167,299,900.69
Virginia‘s NSVRC posts the Request for Applications – Q&A Addendum, Virginia Rural Health Transformation Program Mobile and Hybrid Care, and says yes to for-profit and vendor-led applicants two days before applications close
The addendum we flagged as delayed on September 12 went up yesterday: 20 questions, four pages. Applications for the $4,217,563 RFA are still due September 18, by email to bdavis@nsvregion.org.
Nearly every answer is “Yes.” What that opens:
Virginia for-profit mobile-health technology companies can apply directly (Q13)
A healthcare distributor can be the primary applicant, with the manufacturer and a licensed provider as implementation partners (Q1)
The main RHTP investment can be technology and infrastructure, with licensed partners delivering the clinical services (Q7)
Mobile technology plus CHWs plus community access points plus telehealth counts as a mobile/hybrid model, no vehicle required (Q10)
Applicants headquartered outside the region can apply (Q14), and partners don’t need SAM.gov registration or a UEI (Q16)
Separate applications to multiple Virginia Planning District Commission RFAs are allowed if the costs don’t overlap (Q18)
The one thing NSVRC wouldn’t bless is lining up clinical partners after award. Here’s the answer it gave three times:
Where clinical partnerships are necessary for implementation, a competitive application has the partnerships necessary to complete the proposed program within the given timeline.
The askers are mostly vendors: a device distributor, a mobile-health technology company, and one by name, Appalachian Access, which wants to be a lead applicant’s “contracted implementation, deployment, technology, and patient-navigation partner.” NSVRC says it will keep answering questions until the deadline, so the addendum may grow.
