Funding Opportunities for Family Physician Practices

The CAFP understands how time intensive it is to search and apply for grant opportunities to support ongoing practice transformation and development to best meet your patients’ needs. That is why we have compiled the available funding opportunities through the State of Colorado and Federal government for family physician practices.

CO Department of Public Health and the Environment: Healthcare Workers Recruitment and Re-engagement Fund The purpose of this grant is to incentivize and assist employers in the recruitment of different licensed healthcare professionals to employment in long-term care facilities (LTCF), facilities with a Healthcare Professional Shortage Area Designation, and pediatric-serving hospitals. If a facility successfully recruits a licensed professional who has left the healthcare industry and will work 20 hours per week or more on average for a minimum of six months, the facility is eligible to receive a one-time payment of $20,000 per professional re-engaged.

  • Details: Application submission deadline is the last Friday of every month
  • Eligible organizations: Long-term care facilities, Hold official federal designation as a health professional shortage area, Hospitals that serve pediatric population.
  • Funding can be used for: The Healthcare Workforce Recruitment and Re-engagement Fund incentivizes creative retention ideas. These may include signing bonuses, child care and transportation stipends, tuition reimbursements, and employee health and wellness programs. A full list of suggestions can be found in the Allowables Roadmap on this website.

Care Forward Colorado Zero-cost, short-term training programs at community and technical colleges.

  • Details: Starting in Fall 2022, students who enroll in one of the following healthcare certificate programs will have tuition, fees, and course materials covered as Care Forward Colorado funding allows.

Health Resources and Services Administration Teaching Health Center Planning and Development Program: Establish new primary care medical and dental residency programs in community-based ambulatory patient care centers in underserved and rural communities.

  • Background: Recent research has demonstrated that residents with rural exposure during residency training are associated with a 5 to 6-fold likelihood of practicing in rural. However, unlike hospital-based residency programs that rely primarily on Medicare funding, many teaching health centers receive federal funding through HRSA’s Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (GME) program.
  • Details: This two-year grant will award 47 grants, up to $500,000 each to eligible applicants, including Rural Health Clinics (RHC) or health centers operated by a tribal organization. Community-based ambulatory patient care centers (e.g., RHC) may also apply under a GME consortium model forming partnerships with stakeholders, such as Critical Access Hospital or medical schools to serve as an institutional sponsor for the residency program. Applications are due on grants.gov on December 12, 2022.
  • Contact: THC@hrsa.gov or read the FAQs here.

Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Accelerate Apprenticeship Grant Encourages employer adoption of registered apprenticeship in the state of Colorado. A registered apprenticeship program includes these five elements: (1.) On-the-job learning, (2.) Related instruction, (3.) Progressive wage increase, (4.) Mentorship, and (5.) Registration with US Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship or State
Apprenticeship Agency

  • Details: Employers not yet involved in a registered apprenticeship receive: $5,000 once they register their own or join an existing apprenticeship program and hire an apprentice and $2,500 once they retain an apprentice for six months. Applications will be collected on a rolling basis until funds run out or the grant period of performance ends (3/1/2025).
  • FAQ document

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Practice-based Health Education Grant Program: Funds to support clinical and practice-based training opportunities for health care professions, priority will be given to primary care.

  • Details:
    • First round deadline is July 31, 2023.
    • Eligible applicants include private for-profit, public, or nonprofit organizations that seek to increase clinical practice-based training capacity and quality programs for health professions students. This includes health care employers, accredited education organizations, health care education training programs, Colorado medical schools, and ACGME-accredited residency programs. Priority will be given to applicants from Colorado-based public or nonprofit organizations that offer or support training within Colorado health care institutions specifically focused on delivery of primary care, including medical, dental, and behavioral health care.
  • Example projects could include: Preceptor recruitment strategies, Student internships in rural or underserved clinics, and more.
  • Submit all questions via email to cdphe_chsc@state.co.us with the subject line: Practice-based Health Education RFA Questions.

Colorado Health Care Policy and Financing Primary Care Fund  Annual grant opportunity to support community clinics and primary care providers by awarding funding based on the number of medically indigent patients the provider serves. Applications for the dissemination of funds from the Primary Care Fund are processed once a year.

  • General Timeline: Application released in January, Intent to apply in April, Final application materials due May
  • Awards range from $7,000 – $3,000,000

Funding for Medicaid and OmniSalud transition from the Colorado Safety Net Collaboration and BRIDGE Healthcare Partners, LLC is designed to assist safety net clinics implement processes related to the expansion of Health First Colorado (Medicaid) programs and
OmniSalud (private insurance for those without citizenship).

  • Details: Applicants must –
    • Serve predominantly Medicaid and uninsured patients (more than 60%)
    • Not be a Federally Qualified Health Center or a designated Rural Health Center
    • Become or are a member of the CO Safety Net Clinics.  They can contact Phyllis Albritton <cosafetynet@clinicacolorado.org> if they are interested in becoming a member

Colorado Division of Professions and Occupations Prescription Drug Monitoring Program / Electronic Health Record Integration One-time program to support clinicians update their electronic health record system to integrate the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

  • Details: Interested practices should email OpiSafe directly by Monday, March 20, with the following information:
    • Email: Marybeth@opisafe.com
    • Re: PDMP-EHR Connection Opportunity
    • Practice Name:
    • Number of prescribers (who need to be able to check PDMP):
    • Name of EHR system:
    • Accept Medicaid clients (yes/no):
  • Emailing OpiSafe does NOT obligate you to participate, or to continue to use the free connection and software after the one-year paid period; you may use it for a year and then cancel if you decide not to continue. OpiSafe is endorsed by Colorado Medicaid and used by many major health systems in Colorado including SCL Health, Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado, etc., plus many smaller hospitals and clinics. You may reach Mary Beth Savory at Opisafe (marybeth@opisafe.com) for a system demo or with any questions you may have about this opportunity, or view this information from Health First Colorado.

Medicaid (HCPF) has created a subsidized license program for their Prescriber Tool, which also includes OpiSafe, and the cost of the software is paid by HCPF for a period of one year (thereafter paid by the practice at an affordable rate, should you choose to continue). Email at the details above.

Colorado Health Care Policy and Financing Health Care Practice Transformation Two-year grant opportunity to develop infrastructure for providers to better serve individuals with behavioral health care needs in outpatient care settings, increase access to quality health care for those with behavioral health-care needs, and make changes to adopt and implement alternative payment models.

  • Details:
    • Short-term grant funding will be offered to physical and behavioral health care providers expanding access to care and treatment for mental health and substance use disorders using an evidence-based integrated care model.
    • Award amount range $200,000 – $400,000
    • Request for Applications Release: March 22, 2023
      Submission Deadline: April 26, 2023
      Project and Award Announcement: June 1, 2023
    • Fact Sheet

Colorado Health Care Policy and Financing Rural Provider Access and Affordability Stimulus Grant Program One-time $10 million awarded to qualified rural hospitals. The purpose of the grant payments is to improve health care affordability and access to care in rural Colorado. Grant payments will be allocated into two categories, affordability-related projects and care-related projects.

  • Details: TBD

Office of eHealth Innovation Rural Connectivity & Access to Virtual Care One-time funds to support rural access to virtual care, keep care local by supplying rural health care providers with access to critical data and technology, improve care coordination and enhances the efficiency of care delivery to rural patients.

  • Details: TBD

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Rural Health Network Development Planning Program One-time awards of $100,000 to support the planning and development of integrated health care networks seeking to expand access and improve quality of care in rural communities. HRSA plans to award 20 grants to rural communities as part of this funding opportunity.

  • Details: Application due January 6, 2023
  • Award: Up to $100,000

Colorado Department of Revenue Rural & Frontier Preceptor Tax Credit Yearly tax credit of $1,000 tax credit against taxes owed per income year for an eligible preceptorship provided during the tax year in which the credit is claimed.

  • Details: Only preceptors working in a rural or frontier designated county are eligible for the tax credit.
  • More information can be found here.

The Protect and Expand Contraceptive Access funding opportunity is available to Colorado-based primary care safety net clinics and local health agencies with contraceptive care programs. The opportunity will be available to safety net clinics, including Federally Qualified Health Centers, independent safety net clinics, school-based health centers, and local health agencies with existing contraceptive care programs to improve contraceptive access systems and influence broader policy change for reproductive equity.

  • Details: The application opened March 1, 2023. The grant applications deadline is April 26, 2023.  Clinics may apply for up to $250,000 over a 24-month project period, with an average grant award anticipated to range from $75,000-$100,000.

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment COVID-19 Health Equity and Immunization Rolling grant opportunity through 2024 that seeks to advance health equity through community engagement, outreach, and immunization access. Four different program areas to achieve broad goals.

  • Details: The application period for this RFA opportunity will open August 1, 2022. Applications are accepted multiple times throughout the year until January 31, 2024.

Colorado Behavioral Health Administration Care Continuum Gap Grants Rolling grant opportunities to address identified behavioral health-care needs in the applicants community.

  • Details: Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, federally recognized Indian tribes, and local governments. A total of $90 million available in three focus areas.
    • Community Investment Grants: This can be used to recruit and train professionals as navigators for individuals and facilitate transfer of care by developing relationships across levels of care.
    • Children, Youth and Family Grants: To expand children-orientated, youth-oriented, and family-oriented services with the goal of establishing a care access point
    • Substance Use Workforce Stability Grant Program: To support direct staff who spend more than 50% of their time working with clients. Support can mean temporary salary increases, recruitment and retention bonuses, and other strategies to support staff.
  • Application and information going live December 2022.
  • Sign up to receive updates from the BHA here.