It’s been about seven years since the Health Resources and Services Administration issued a New Access Points (NAP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). That’s a long dry spell for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and their Look-Alike brethren, but fear not, the FY ’24 New Access Points will be published on December 12.*
There will be $150M up for grabs, with 230 $650K/year grants for five years to be made, and the deadline will be February 12. I have no idea why HRSA has not issued any NAP NOFOs for years, but, if your organization is an FQHC, LookAlike, or wants to become an FQHC, I’d get on this NAP NOFO bus—who knows when the next NAP NOFO bus will come along.
By way of background, to be eligible for a NAP grant, the applicant has to be, or agree to set-up, a nonprofit “Health Center” under Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (42 USCS § 254b), or, as they are termed in the trade, a Section 330 provider/FQHC. Without getting too far into the weeds, the mission of FQHCs is to provide access to patients who are eligible for public insurance programs (e.g., Medicaid, etc.), are very low-income, or lack health insurance. Although services are nominally provided on a sliding scale and no one is supposed to be turned away, Section 330 providers have to keep the lights on and, like all health care providers, they prefer patients with third party payers. Still, in much of low-income urban and rural America, FQHCs have become the healthcare providers of last resort.
We’ve written many funded NAP grants and this is the best way for an FQHC to open a new service delivery site, or if you’re a Look-Alike or other nonprofit healthcare provider, become an FQHC. While the Section 330 grant only covers about 15% of operating costs for most of our FQHC clients, this is a key component of funding healthcare services for underserved folks over the long-term. Also, FQHCs are covered by FTCA federal malpractice insurance and participate in the 340B Program for reduced prescription drug costs, both huge competitive advantages over non-FQHC providers.
NAP proposals are very similar to Service Area Competition (SAC) proposals, which FQHCs must submit every three years to keep their Section 330 grants. This means a NAP proposal is very complex to draft and must be nearly perfect to be funded, as there will many more applicants than the 230 grants to be made. So, it’s best to start planning your NAP application as soon as possible. Also, if your internal grant writing team is either not quite ready for prime time or stretched too thin, hire Seliger + Associates to do the heavy lifting. We’re tanned, fit and ready to rock ‘n roll.
*This link is from a non-government site but includes info you find at grants.gov if you do a search. Since this is a “forecasted” grant opportunity, the actual NOFO won’t be available on grants.gov until December 12, so set a “tickler.”