AZRHTP - Adopt Shared Services Consortiums

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state Medicaid agency for Arizona, has issued a Request for Grant Applications (RFGA) titled Adopt Shared Services Consortiums under the broader Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). This program is funded entirely by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with a total federal award exceeding one hundred sixty six million dollars. The RHTP is a five year initiative designed to improve healthcare access, workforce capacity, provider sustainability, and population health outcomes for approximately eight hundred thousand rural residents across Arizona, including rural Tribal communities. This specific RFGA represents one of several competitive funding opportunities released as part of the statewide transformation effort. The purpose of the Adopt Shared Services Consortiums initiative is to support the development and implementation of shared service models among rural healthcare providers. These models are intended to reduce operational costs, eliminate duplication of services, and enhance the collective capacity of participating organizations. By pooling resources, rural providers can achieve efficiencies similar to those of larger health systems. The initiative emphasizes collaboration across healthcare providers, social service organizations, and community partners to strengthen care coordination and ensure long term financial sustainability in rural regions. Funding supports a wide range of shared service activities, including shared staffing arrangements such as traveling clinicians and joint employment structures, shared training programs like continuing education and cross training, and shared data systems such as centralized analytics and billing platforms. Additional allowable activities include shared facilities, joint purchasing and supply chain management, and shared compliance functions. These investments are intended to create integrated rural health networks and co located service hubs that improve operational efficiency and expand service delivery capacity. Projects must represent new or expanded activities and cannot simply maintain existing services or duplicate already funded efforts. The program uses a tiered funding structure to accommodate varying levels of organizational capacity. Tier one awards support small scale collaborations between two to three organizations with funding ranging from ten thousand to ninety five thousand dollars. Tier two supports multi function consortiums of four to six organizations with awards between ninety five thousand one dollars and five hundred thousand dollars. Tier three provides comprehensive support for large consortiums of seven or more organizations, with funding ranging from five hundred thousand one dollars up to one million five hundred thousand dollars. Across all tiers, applicants must demonstrate measurable expansion in services, geographic reach, or population served. Eligible applicants include a broad but explicitly defined set of rural healthcare entities such as critical access hospitals, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, community mental health centers, Tribal health organizations, public health departments, and nonprofit healthcare organizations serving rural areas. The eligibility list is exhaustive, and entities not included are not permitted to apply. Applicants must submit proposals through the State of Arizona’s online grant system, EUNA, and are responsible for ensuring timely and complete submission. No extensions are granted for technical issues or incomplete applications. The application period opens on July thirty first, two thousand twenty six, and closes on August twenty eighth, two thousand twenty six. Questions must be submitted by August tenth, two thousand twenty six, and a pre application conference is scheduled for August seventh, two thousand twenty six. Awards are anticipated to support projects through a performance period ending October thirtieth, two thousand twenty six for the first budget year, with continuation funding dependent on annual review and approval. Applications are evaluated competitively based on alignment with program goals, demonstrated expansion of services, and capacity to implement sustainable shared service models. Administrative costs for grantees are capped at seven percent of the total award, consistent with federal program guidelines. While indirect cost rates may be applied if supported by an approved agreement, they remain subject to this cap. The program emphasizes long term sustainability through value based payment models, shared savings arrangements, and cooperative revenue structures. All communications regarding the grant must be directed to the designated procurement email, and applicants are strongly encouraged to review the full RFGA documentation before submission to ensure compliance with all requirements.

Ensure proposal clearly demonstrates expansion beyond existing services and aligns with shared services model goals emphasizing cost reduction and collaboration