Service Area Competition | HRSA 23 021

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 23 021

The Service Area Competition (SAC) funding opportunity (HRSA 23-021) is a discretionary grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). It sits under the Health Center Program (CFDA 93.224) and is designed to support organizations that deliver primary health care services to medically underserved communities and populations across the United States. In practical terms, this competition is about maintaining and renewing federal support for health centers serving specific geographic service areas and patient populations already connected to the Health Center Program, so those communities do not lose access to essential, front-line care.

The core purpose of the SAC Notice of Funding Opportunity is continuity of care. HRSA uses this competition to help ensure that people in currently served service areas can continue receiving comprehensive primary care that is high-quality, culturally competent, and responsive to local needs. The emphasis on community-based and patient-directed care reflects the Health Center Program model, where services are tailored to the populations being served and are guided by patient/community input and governance structures typical of health centers. The overall aim is to preserve stable access to primary care in places where barriers like low income, rural location, limited provider availability, or other access challenges make it difficult to obtain consistent health services.

Eligible applicants are broad within the public and nonprofit space, reflecting the variety of entities that can operate community health centers or similar primary care organizations. Eligibility includes state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, as well as federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other tribal organizations. Private institutions of higher education are also listed, and the notice indicates there are additional eligibility clarifications in the full opportunity text. A key theme in the program description is that applicants are expected to be domestic, community-based, nonprofit, and patient-directed organizations, consistent with the Health Center Program framework.

This opportunity is categorized as a grant, with an expected 79 awards listed in the source data. The award ceiling is shown as 0 in the extracted fields, which typically means the ceiling is not stated in that particular data snapshot or is defined in the full NOFO rather than represented as a fixed cap in the summary record. The opportunity was created on July 14, 2022, and the original application closing date was September 12, 2022, which indicates the specific competition cycle referenced here is no longer open, even though the program itself is recurring and may appear in future cycles under similar SAC announcements.

In short, SAC is a competitive funding pathway HRSA uses to keep the Health Center Program operating without gaps in communities that already rely on it. The funding supports continued delivery of comprehensive primary care services with an explicit focus on quality and cultural competence, and it targets organizations positioned to serve medically underserved populations through a community-rooted, patient-centered model.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Service Area Competition" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.224.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 14, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 12, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 79 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Private institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 23 021

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