Request for Applications Released for Grants to Support IT and Telehealth

On Jan. 2, 2024, the Department of Health (DOH) released a Request for Applications (RFA) for funding under the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program (SHCFTP), Rounds IV and V, to support health information technology, cybersecurity, and telehealth transformation. Although the RFA does not appear to specify the total amount of funds available under this RFA, the State budgets for 2022-23 and 2023-24 allocated $150 million and $500 million respectively under the SHCFTP for information technology, cybersecurity, and telehealth.

Eligible applicants include, among others:

Residential health care facilities;
Adult care facilities;
Diagnostic and treatment centers;
Assisted living programs;
Home care providers;
Hospices; and
Residential facilities.

Projects must support technological and telehealth projects that facilitate health care transformation in one of the following categories:

Electronic health records, including consolidating infrastructure, implementing clinical decision support, and/or improving revenue cycle management or other systems that improve the efficiency of the health care organization and improve quality of care.
Cybersecurity, including improvements to the organization’s cybersecurity posture, including the implementation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, and meeting HITRUST certification requirements.
Health management tools, including implementing applications that aggregate clinical and administrative data to support the provision of care, improve patient outcomes, and/or support participation of providers in value-based contracting.
Telehealth, including implementation and improvement of telehealth applications that improve access to care or improve the provision of services.

The timeline for the RFA is as follows:

Questions Due: Jan. 26, 2024
Questions and Answers Posted: Feb. 9, 2024
Applications Due: March 13, 2024 by 4 p.m.

Questions may be submitted to DOH here.

Prospective applicants are cautioned that they must be prequalified in the NYS Grants Gateway or Statewide Financial System (SFS) to apply. This is a document-intensive process, and members are advised to do this well in advance. In addition, the Grants Gateway will be undergoing a system transition to SFS on Jan. 16, 2024. Applicants that are not fully prequalified in the NYS Grants Gateway by close of business Jan. 9, 2024 will need to prequalify in SFS. Further, if an applicant’s Grants Gateway Document Vault expires prior to application submission, the applicant will need to prequalify in SFS. The first day that the SFS prequalification modules will be available is Jan. 16, 2024.

Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org