Telehealth Centers of Excellence | HRSA 21 030

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 21 030

The Telehealth Centers of Excellence (COEs) funding opportunity (HRSA-21-030) is a limited-competition cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), designed to strengthen rural health care by closely evaluating how specific telehealth services and use cases perform in real-world settings. Rather than paying for new telehealth infrastructure or launching brand-new networks, the program is aimed at organizations that already operate mature, high-performing telehealth programs and can use that foundation to rigorously test, measure, and refine telehealth approaches that may later be replicated elsewhere. In other words, the emphasis is on evidence-building and practical demonstration: what works, for whom, under what conditions, and what it takes to sustain it financially and operationally in rural and underserved communities.

The COEs are expected to be housed in public academic medical centers with a strong track record in telehealth. To be a fit for this program, applicants must already run a successful, high-volume telehealth program (meaning a large number of telehealth visits annually), have a reimbursement structure that makes telehealth financially self-sustaining, and have established service programs reaching medically underserved areas where chronic disease burden and poverty rates are high. HRSA is clearly targeting institutions that can function as real-world laboratories: places with enough patient volume, clinical breadth, staffing depth, and billing experience to produce credible findings and workable models, not just small pilots that cannot be generalized.

Functionally, the Telehealth COEs are intended to act as telehealth incubators. They will pilot new or innovative telehealth applications, track implementation and outcomes, and refine models based on performance data. The goal is to generate evidence-based telehealth programs and an implementation framework that can be shared broadly and potentially form the backbone of a future evidence-based telehealth network program focused on rural health. This includes demonstrating how telehealth can improve access to care, support rural clinicians, reduce patient travel burdens, and improve quality and safety, while also paying attention to sustainability and the potential impact on federal health care spending.

A major expectation of the program is active collaboration across HRSA-supported telehealth and rural research initiatives. Awardees are expected to coordinate closely with National and Regional Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs), Telehealth-Focused Rural Health Research Centers (RHRCs), and the License Portability program. The TRCs primarily provide hands-on technical assistance and serve as hubs for telehealth policy and technology support across states and regions, while RHRCs focus on evaluation and research that expands the national evidence base for rural telehealth. The COEs are meant to complement, not duplicate, those roles by contributing practical, high-volume operational expertise plus structured assessments of specific telehealth interventions. HRSA is signaling that these programs should work in a synchronized way so that technical assistance, research, policy insights, and operational demonstration reinforce each other.

Another key deliverable is knowledge sharing. Each COE must create and disseminate resources derived from its projects, data, and lessons learned. This includes maintaining an independent location where projects, data, and other resources are posted and where the public can submit requests for information. Some of the most useful resources may also be highlighted on the HHS Telehealth website (telehealth.hhs.gov), further positioning the COEs as national reference points for actionable telehealth guidance, toolkits, and emerging best practices.

Measurement and reporting are central to the program. COEs are expected to demonstrate national and/or regional impact over the period of performance, particularly in rural communities facing high poverty and chronic disease prevalence. To support credible assessments of telehealth effectiveness, awardees must gather and submit performance data across a wide set of telehealth metrics, including clinical data and claims data. This reflects HRSA's focus on outcomes and value: not only whether telehealth increases access, but whether it improves measurable health outcomes, how it affects utilization patterns, and what it implies for costs and public spending.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is listed under CFDA 93.211 and uses a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning HRSA typically has substantial involvement in shaping or overseeing key aspects of the work compared to a standard grant. The award ceiling is $3,250,000, with two expected awards. The notice was created February 19, 2021, with an original closing date of April 20, 2021. Eligibility is described as "Others (see text...)," but the narrative makes clear that the intended applicants are public academic medical centers with established, self-sustaining, high-volume telehealth programs already serving underserved rural areas.

The most important boundary condition in the notice is that this is not a telehealth network development or expansion grant. HRSA is not looking to fund startup telehealth capacity; it is looking to fund experienced centers that can evaluate telehealth interventions at scale, produce transferable evidence and implementation resources, and help shape how telehealth is integrated into rural health care delivery in a way that is clinically sound, operationally realistic, and financially sustainable.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Telehealth Centers of Excellence" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.211.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 19, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 20, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 21 030

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