Coordinating and Connecting Care Grant

North Dakota Health and Human Services is administering the Coordinating and Connecting Care competitive funding opportunity as part of North Dakota's Rural Health Transformation Program. The broader Rural Health Transformation Program was established by Congress under Public Law 119-21 as a $50 billion federal initiative administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help rural communities reimagine healthcare delivery and improve health outcomes. North Dakota's five-year program includes four initiatives, and this opportunity supports Initiative 3, Bring High-Quality Healthcare Closer to Home. The solicitation number is 210-362. The purpose of Coordinating and Connecting Care is to strengthen care coordination and information exchange across North Dakota and develop actionable planning products for a neutral, sustainable, statewide Community Information Exchange and closed-loop referral system. Year 1 is limited to planning. The recipient is expected to evaluate existing care coordination processes, referral workflows, IT platforms across payers and providers, governance models, stakeholder needs, and technical considerations; establish a cross-sector advisory committee; identify potential pilot sites, target populations, and IT needs; and develop a neutral planning approach, stakeholder engagement strategy, governance framework, technical assessment, and implementation roadmap. Primary beneficiaries are rural North Dakota communities, participating healthcare and community-based and volunteer organizations, Medicaid members, and other rural residents. Allowable work includes stakeholder engagement and needs assessment; assessment of care coordination and referral barriers; inventories of existing programs, workflows, electronic health record systems, health information exchange capabilities, and related initiatives; exploration of governance, ownership, financing, privacy, security, consent, neutrality, data-sharing, and sustainability models; limited demonstrations, simulations, and readiness assessments; feasibility analysis for integration with existing and future infrastructure; and development of performance measures, implementation strategies, pilot concepts, and sustainability approaches. The award may not be used to procure, launch, implement, or operate a statewide Community Information Exchange or closed-loop referral system. Capital expenditures are unallowable. Administrative or indirect costs are generally limited to 10 percent under the stated RHTP rules. Pre-award costs, supplanting existing funding, independent research and development, certain lobbying activities, and other specifically identified costs are also unallowable. No applicant cost-share or matching requirement is stated. Eligible applicants include Health Information Exchange or Community Information Exchange organizations; rural health networks, associations, and collaboratives; institutions of higher education or research organizations; community-based or volunteer organizations; payer or managed-care organizations; governmental or quasi-governmental entities; and organizations with demonstrated experience in care coordination, closed-loop referrals, interoperability, data governance, Community Information Exchange activities, stakeholder engagement, or statewide planning. Partnerships and consortiums may apply but must designate one eligible organization as lead applicant and fiscal agent. Applicants do not have to directly provide healthcare or operate exclusively in a rural location, but proposed activities must primarily benefit rural North Dakota residents, including Medicaid members and dual-eligible Medicaid and Medicare members. Applicants must demonstrate a rural focus, appropriate organizational capacity, and the ability to act as a neutral statewide convener without favoring a healthcare system, provider, payer, technology vendor, proprietary solution, or other organizational interest. Applications must be submitted through Qualtrics and must include responses to all required application questions and a completed Itemized Subrecipient Budget Template uploaded in Excel format. Required content covers organizational background and eligibility alignment; project title and overarching goal; key personnel and external support; the identified need; affected populations and stakeholders; existing activities and funding; neutral-convener experience; avoidance of duplication; and a detailed proposed project. Applicants may propose up to three strategies and must describe associated outcomes, services, tasks, metrics, sustainability considerations, relevant technology or planning-resource purchases, applicable CMS project elements, RHTP outcomes, milestones, and completion dates. Each budget item requires detailed justification. Applications are reviewed and scored solely on the submitted materials using the Scoring Tool referenced in the required documents. Priority consideration is given to applicants capable of producing a neutral, comprehensive, actionable statewide planning approach, with preference factors including relevant care-coordination and interoperability experience, rural and Medicaid knowledge, infrastructure-assessment capability, stakeholder-engagement experience, governance and sustainability expertise, and objective evaluation. Applications are due August 26, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Central Time. Late applications are non-responsive and will not be reviewed. A technical assistance conference call is scheduled for August 12, 2026, from noon to 12:45 p.m. Central Time, and applicants are strongly encouraged to submit questions through the RHTP FAQ Survey before the final seven days preceding the application deadline. Questions submitted within seven days of the deadline may not be addressed. Approximately $1 million in total federal funding is available, and HHS anticipates making one Year 1 planning-grant award; the final award amount will depend on the application, proposed scope, available funding, and alignment with required objectives and deliverables. The operating period begins upon execution of the agreement with required approvals and signatures and ends August 31, 2027. All grant-funded planning activities, expenditures, the final written plan, and the presentation to HHS must be completed by that date. HHS states that an additional application process for Coordinating and Connecting Care is expected in future years of the Rural Health Transformation Program, but no fixed annual schedule is provided.

Demonstrate a neutral, comprehensive and actionable statewide planning approach; show relevant care coordination, closed-loop referral, interoperability or CIE experience; demonstrate knowledge of rural healthcare and Medicaid populations including dual-eligible members; objectively assess existing programs, workflows, EHRs, HIE capabilities, payer systems and related infrastructure; engage healthcare providers, payers, community-based and volunteer organizations, tribal partners and state stakeholders; address governance, privacy, consent, data sharing and sustainable financing; avoid duplication with existing initiatives; provide practical recommendations and a phased roadmap; maintain neutrality and do not favor a healthcare system, provider, payer, vendor or proprietary solution; treat Year 1 as planning rather than statewide implementation