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Via Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
The DeSantis administration Tuesday announced $188 million in grants to organizations across the state to help improve healthcare access to 1.2 million residents of rural areas across the state.
“These investments in rural Florida will strengthen hospitals and clinics, expand the rural health care workforce, and help ensure Floridians can access high-quality care in their own communities,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a prepared release announcing the grants.
The administration did not make available to the public the grant applications, only a state-compiled list of organizations that received grants and the amount of the grant.
That document indicates nearly 25% of the grant funds were awarded to Community Health IT — about $44 million to support “preventative care and care at home services.” It drew the largest individual grant, $18.5 million to support “preventive care and care at home” in Northeast Florida.
Community Health IT also received a $13.3 million grant, a $3.6 million grant, and a near-$8.2 million grant to support similar services in southwest, southeast, and the northwest regions of the state, respectively. Records show Kendra Siler is the company’s registered agent and president.
The third-largest grant went to Calhoun-Liberty Hospital. It received $11.2 million for “specialty and acute care.”
The DeSantis administration previously announced about $22 million in rural health transformation grants, exhausting what the federal government allotted to Florida in Year One Rural Health Transformation Program funding.
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The grants are made possible by the Rural Health Transformation Program, which provides states access to $10 billion in each of the next five years in grant funding. The grants can support expanded access to care, recruitment and retainment of providers, and for technological innovation, including remote care and emerging delivery models. Dollars cannot be used to reimburse costs of the care provided, though.
The $50 billion initiative is intended to modernize health care in these communities. At nearly $210 million, Florida ranks just above the average grant award of $200 million, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services release
Year Two funding will equal whatever facilities spent by Sept. 30, 2027. That means, for instance, that if Florida spends only $190 million by that time, Year Two grant funding will be $190 million and not the $209 million the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved.
There are 67 counties in Florida; 31 are considered “rural” under Florida law. The 2020 Census put Florida’s rural population at 1,183,017 people.
For purposes of the grants, the state is divided into four geographic regions and funds were awarded for projects that fell under one of five broad categories:
Preventive care and care at home; specialty and acute care
Value-based care
Rural and satellite clinics
Workforce initiatives
Health and lifestyles
The Northwest Florida region received $81 million, more than any other areas of the state.
By contrast, the southeast region, which includes heavily populated Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, received $12 million.
“Every awardee in this round went through a competitive, merit-based review, and it shows in the caliber of the partners we are announcing today,” said Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun L. Harris.
“These organizations know their communities, and they have shown us concrete plans to put this funding to work. This is what it looks like to close the gap between rural and urban health care access, one community at a time.”
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