New Funding Coming Your Way - Think Before You Spend!
By Leanne Cardwell, CLC Grant Consultant
Health Centers will realize significant new funding from the American Rescue Plan recently passed by Congress. This includes the Funding for Health Centers (H8F), and Health Center Construction and Capital Improvements (C8E) opportunities.
As health centers review the guidelines for these new major sources of funding, it is important to thoughtfully plan and strategize the best ways to put the funds to work for your Health Center and your patients.
Here are a few Community Link Consulting ideas to help your organization strategize on what you might include across funding opportunities.
Funding for Health Centers (H8F)
With this two-year grant, health centers may want to consider spreading grant allocations across several workplan and budget categories, including wages, fringe, supplies, contractual, equipment, minor A/R and costs incurred back to January 31, 2020.
Brainstorming
To strategize what to include in your workplan activities, consider pulling staff into the brainstorming process. With so many opportunities to use these funds in different ways, such as training and development and for workforce well-being, consider ways to solicit staff ideas.
For example, you might send out a staff survey to gather ideas for funding needs across the organization or host a brainstorming session. Compile staff-generated ideas in one place and sort ideas by allowable funding categories. Then have the executive team rank them in order of priority based on project workplan categories and the short-term and long-term needs for your health center.
Minor Alteration/Renovation (A/R)
If your health center is thinking about undertaking minor Alteration/Renovation (A/R) with this grant, find and familiarize yourself with all minor A/R project forms required in the grant application as soon as possible. Allowable minor A/R projects for H8F must not be more than $500,000 and cannot include new construction activities, additions, or expansions.
If your health center is considering including minor A/R in its H8F workplan, review the C8E Minor A/R project types and restrictions, outlined below, and see if any minor A/R under consideration in H8F can be moved to your C8E application. This will maximize the amount of funding your organization can apply to staff and operational costs and limit the amount of Minor A/R paperwork your health center, which can be compiled exclusively for the C8E grant application.
Health Center Construction and Capital Improvements Funding (C8E)
C8E is a three-year grant with a project period of September 1, 2021 to August 31, 2021. It has no limit on A/R project costs like H8F, and exterior expansion work is also permitted.
Since this grant focuses solely on construction and capital improvements and does not support health center operational or staffing costs, determine if it makes sense to move all and any proposed Minor A/R in H8F to C8E.
C8E allowable use of funds include the following project types:
Construction of a New Facility – This might include a new building or standalone structure, including a new standalone service delivery site.
Construction/Expansion of an Existing Facility - Adding square footage or significant site remodeling, such as expanding a new pharmacy wing or the addition of a covered driveway for patient drop off.
Alteration/Renovation (A/R) of an Existing Facility – Includes renovations that do not increase square footage, such as modernizing a facility interior or reconfiguring existing space to add new exam spaces that support additional patient capacity.
Equipment Only – Includes loose, movable equipment not affixed to the physical building structure and with a useful life of more than one year, such as the purchase of new clinical equipment or a mobile van.
Within all these project types, construction related activities must not start before the September 1, 2021 award date. Pre-construction costs, such as architect or consultant fees necessary to the planning and design of the project, can be applied to this grant, including costs incurred back to January 31, 2020. Additionally, for all construction/expansion projects - regardless of award amount - applicants are required to file a Notice of Federal Interest (NFI).
Leverage resources across grants – Look to the future!
When developing your health center’s plan for both American Rescue Plan grants, think big picture and long-term needs. Make sure to review against active and known upcoming grant or resource opportunities to ensure that your health center is optimizing H8F and C8E proposals with expenses that are not or cannot be allocated to other grants.
Additionally, given the massive changes that the world has experienced in the last year and a half while working through a global pandemic, every person and system has been impacted and had to pivot in small and large ways. Community health centers have reimagined and reorchestrated entire service delivery systems within weeks to meet community need, and to respond to a public health crisis. Yet, there is still so much work to do, and so much need to meet, with pent up community demand. However, in this flood of response health centers need to continue to look forward and may want to invest a portion of H8F funds in drafting a new multi-year strategic plan that reflects these learnings, adaptations and outlines a successful operating path into the future.
